Today In History Wednesday
June 30, 2010
1841 - The Erie Railroad rolled out its first passenger train.
1894 - Korea declared independence from China and asked for Japanese
aid.
1913 - Fighting broke out between Bulgaria and Greece and Spain. It was
the beginning of the Second Balkan War.
1930 - France pulled its troops out of Germany’s Rhineland.
1934 - Adolf Hitler purged the Nazi Party by destroying the SA and
bringing to power the SS in the "Night of the Long Knives."
1936 - Margaret Mitchell’s book, "Gone with the Wind," was published in
New York City.
1950 - U.S. President Harry Truman ordered U.S. troops into Korea and
authorizes the draft.
1953 - The first Corvette rolled off the Chevrolet assembly line in
Flint, MI. It sold for $3,250.
1957 - The American occupation headquarters in Japan was dissolved.
1958 - The U.S. Congress passed a law authorizing the admission of
Alaska as the 49th state in the Union.
1964 - The last of U.N. troops left Congo after a four-year effort to
bring stability to the country.
1971 - The 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified when
Ohio became the 38th state to approve it. The amendment lowered the
minimum voting age to 18.
1974 - Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defected in Toronto,
Canada.
1974 - The July 4th scene from the Steven Spielberg movie "Jaws" was
filmed.
1977 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced his opposition to the B-1
bomber.
1985 - Thirty-nine American hostages were freed from a hijacked TWA
jetliner in Beirut after being held for 17 days.
1985 - Yul Brynner left his role as the King of Siam after 4,600
performances in "The King and I."
1986 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that states could outlaw
homosexual acts between consenting adults.
1994 - The U.S. Figure Skating Association stripped Tonya Harding of the
1994 national championship and banned her from the organization for life
for an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan.
1998 - Officials confirmed that the remains of a Vietnam War serviceman
buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery were
identified as those of Air Force pilot
2000 - U.S. President Clinton signed the E-Signature bill to give the
same legal validity to an electronic signature as a signature in pen and
ink.

Where's the Gold! By Arnold Bock -- Gold, the precious metal most
often thought of as money, is in short supply. In fact, the existing
above ground horde is so small one has to question whether it is
realistic to think of it as having a serious role as money in the
future. The fact is there just isn’t enough of it and - once
institutional and private investors realize that the supply is so
disarmingly, and alarmingly, insignificant - prices will go parabolic.

Fiscal 2011 could be hardest yet for states -- U.S. states in fiscal
2011 could be facing the worst budget situation since the recession
began in 2007, according to a think-tank report released on Tuesday.
States' cumulative budget shortfall "will likely reach $140 billion in
the coming year, the largest shortfall yet in a string of huge annual
gaps that date back to the beginning of the recession," said the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities. Fiscal 2011 begins on Thursday for most
states, which have turned to another round of cuts and tax increases to
try to wipe out the gap. All states with the exception of Vermont must
balance their budgets.

Foreclosed Homes in U.S. Sell at 27% Discount as Distressed Supply Grows
-- Homes in the foreclosure process sold at an average 27 percent
discount in the first quarter as almost a third of all U.S. transactions
involved properties in some stage of mortgage distress, according to
RealtyTrac Inc. A total of 232,959 homes sold in the period had received
a default or auction notice or were seized by banks, RealtyTrac said in
a report today. That’s down 14 percent from the fourth quarter and 33
percent from the peak a year earlier, the company said. The average
price of a distressed property was $171,971, according to the Irvine,
California-based data seller.

China denies military exercise aimed at U.S. -- The 6-day, live
ammunition exercise starting on Wednesday in the East China Sea off
China's coast was seen by some analysts as a "response to a (planned)
joint exercise between the United States and Republic of Korea navies in
the Yellow Sea," said the China Daily, the country's official
English-language newspaper. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin
Gang, said there was no such link and a Chinese military officer said
the timing was coincidental.

Glaxo's Avandia Faces Potential Recall in U.S. Advisers' Vote --
Glaxo’s treatment, approved in 1999, generated $1.1 billion in revenue
last year. Avandia was linked to heart attacks and other cardiovascular
complications in two new studies published yesterday that the authors
say should prompt U.S. regulators to block its sale. Outside advisers to
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will meet for two days beginning
July 13 and are likely to consider whether the pill should remain on the
market, deputy commissioner Joshua Sharfstein said. A second study, from
the scientists who first raised the alarm about Avandia, found one of
every 52 patients taking the drug was harmed.

Obama, Bernake Believe Economy is Strengthening -- The U.S. economy
is strengthening but there's still much to be done to put Americans back
to work, President Barack Obama said Tuesday after meeting Federal
Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at the White House.

'Dozens' of US Citizens on Assassination List, White House Adviser Hints
-- When it was confirmed last winter by then-Director of National
Intelligence Dennis Blair that the Obama administration had authorized
the assassination of American citizens working with terrorist groups
overseas, it appeared that no more than three Americans were being
targeted in this manner.

BP Oil Disaster Costing $4M an Hour -- The first major storm of the
Atlantic season looked set to miss the oil spill as it barreled through
the Gulf of Mexico yesterday, offering some respite to BP as its
disaster costs soar.

Oil Spill Dispersants Present Concern -- Some folks are still
questioning the effectiveness, and safety of dispersants being used in
the Gulf. Dr. Robert Shipp, from the University of South Alabama is one
of them.

Doctors Test Cure for Peanut Allergy -- Doctors from Cambridge
University are testing a technique that they believe may functionally
cure people who suffer from inconvenient and dangerous peanut allergies,
researcher Andrew Clark announced at the annual meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego.

Wall St Sinks as Economic Alarm Escalates -- Investors fled the U.S.
stock market on Tuesday and the S&P 500 tumbled to its lowest level in
eight months in a sell-off triggered by a wave of increasing alarm over
the global economic outlook.

Social Security. or Insecurity? -- This presentation briefly reviews
the history of social security, examine its problems, and I will suggest
a solution in the conclusion. Please bear in mind my suggestion is
merely a suggestion – a mature, nationwide discussion on social security
needs to be held. This presentation can be downloaded in PDF format from
Scribd or from here. Some of the graphics are a bit blurry – my
apologies – but at the bottom of the article there is a slideviewer
embedded.

The $5 trillion rollover -- Banks around the world must refinance
more than $5 trillion of debts in the coming three years, a massive
rollover that poses threats to financial stability and growth. The need
to replace these debts, which are medium and long term, will place
pressure on bank profit spreads and in turn may either prompt
deleveraging, where banks sell assets that they can no longer
economically finance, or simply lead to a bout of credit rationing,
where borrowers must pay more to borrow, thus crimping investment and
economic growth.

Mansion Foreclosures Surge -- The percentage of $1 million-plus
loans more than 90 days delinquent rose to 13.3% in February, half again
as high as the 8.6% overall delinquency rate, according to First
American CoreLogic, which tracks U.S. real estate and mortgages. The
statistic, from this Reuters article, points to a sobering reality amid
the happy talk of newly minted millionaires. Many affluent and wealthy
can't keep up with their mortgage payments. Last month, there were 205
foreclosure filings for mortgages of $5 million or more, the third
straight month such filings rose, according to RealtyTrac. The 205
foreclosures totaled $813 million.

Fractional Gold and Silver Accounts - Deceit becomes fraud only when you
can’t deliver -- On June 25, 2010, an article in the Wall Street
Journal noted: Individual investors are increasingly demanding to take
possession of their gold holdings, rather than just owning shares in a
mining company or a gold-related fund. What the Wall Street Journal
failed to report is the possibility that many gold investors may not, in
fact, actually have the gold or silver they purchased and believe to be
safely stored in a bank vault. Gold and silver investors are discovering
that banks possess only a small fraction of the gold and silver
allegedly bought by banks for customers.

Suspicious Activity Report Awareness: No More Transaction Reports --
One way to control when you enter the Matrix is to transact anonymously
with gold and silver. There are very few monetary transactions that are
completely anonymous. Using plastic cards leaves a trail in
transactional databases for the Matrix to find and involves a lot of
third parties. So does writing a check. Cash is usually very good for
protecting privacy in transactions, but even cash is subject to SAR
Report requirements, Currency Transaction Reports, Currency Controls and
other restrictions. Comment: An excellent and concise read.

Today In History Tuesday
June 29, 2010
1776 - The Virginia constitution was adopted and Patrick Henry was made
governor.
1860 - The first iron-pile lighthouse was completed at Minot’s Ledge,
MA.
1880 - France annexed Tahiti.
1888 - Professor Frederick Treves performed the first appendectomy in
England.
1897 - The Chicago Cubs scored 36 runs in a game against Louisville,
setting a record for runs scored by a team in a single game.
1903 - The British government officially protested Belgian atrocities in
the Congo.
1905 - Russian troops intervened as riots erupted in ports all over the
country. Many ships were looted.
1917 - The Ukraine proclaimed independence from Russia.
1925 - Marvin Pipkin filed for a patent for the frosted electric light
bulb.
1926 - Fascists in Rome added an hour to the work day in an economic
efficiency measure.
1932 - Siam’s army seized Bangkok and announced an end to the absolute
monarchy.
1946 - British authorities arrested more than 2,700 Jews in Palestine in
an attempt to end alleged terrorism.
1950 - U.S. President Harry S. Truman authorized a sea blockade of
Korea.
1951 - The United States invited the Soviet Union to the Korean peace
talks on a ship in Wonson Harbor.
1953 - The Federal Highway Act authorized the construction of 42,500
miles of freeway from coast to coast.
1954 - The Atomic Energy Commission voted against reinstating Dr. J.
Robert Oppenheimer's access to classified information.
1955 - The Soviet Union sent tanks to Pozan, Poland, to put down
anti-Communist demonstrations.
1966 - The U.S. bombed fuel storage facilities near the North Vietnamese
cities of Hanoi and Haiphong.
1967 - Israel removed barricades, re-unifying Jerusalem.
1972 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty could
constitute "cruel and unusual punishment." The ruling prompted states to
revise their capital punishment laws.
1982 - Israel invaded Lebanon.
1995 - The shuttle Atlantis and the Russian space station Mir docked,
forming the largest man-made satellite ever to orbit the Earth.
1998 - With negotiations on a new labor agreement at a standstill, the
National Basketball Association (NBA) announced that a lockout would be
imposed at midnight.
2007 - The Apple iPhone went on sale.

Banks Financing Mexico Drug Gangs Admitted in Wells Fargo Deal --
“Wachovia’s blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international
cocaine cartels a virtual carte blanche to finance their operations,”
says Jeffrey Sloman, the federal prosecutor who handled the case. The
smugglers had bought the DC-9 with laundered funds they transferred
through two of the biggest banks in the U.S.: Wachovia Corp. and Bank of
America Corp., Bloomberg Markets reports in its August 2010 issue. This
was no isolated incident. Wachovia, it turns out, had made a habit of
helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. Wells Fargo & Co., which
bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit failed to
monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers
-- including the cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22
tons of cocaine.

Supreme Court affirms fundamental right to bear arms -- The Second
Amendment provides Americans a fundamental right to bear arms that
cannot be violated by state and local governments, the Supreme Court
ruled Monday in a long-sought victory for gun rights advocates. The 5 to
4 decision does not strike down any gun-control laws, nor does it
elaborate on what kind of laws would offend the Constitution. One
justice predicted that an "avalanche" of lawsuits would be filed across
the country asking federal judges to define the boundaries of gun
ownership and government regulation.

10 Alleged Russian Secret Agents Arrested For Spying In U.S. -- The
FBI has arrested 10 people who allegedly spied for Russia for up to a
decade – posing as innocent civilians while trying to infiltrate U.S.
policymaking circles and learn about U.S. weapons, diplomatic strategy
and political developments. An 11th defendant – a man accused of
delivering money to the agents – remains at large.

Doctors call for total NHS ban on homoeopathy -- Doctors will this
week call for a total ban on all homoeopathic treatment on the NHS.
Hundreds of delegates to the British Medical Association's conference
are expected to support seven motions all opposed to the use of public
money to pay for remedies which they claim are, at best, scientifically
unproven and, at worst, ineffective.

Congress Puts Out `Sell' Order on American Banks -- Ignoring
evidence that investors were defrauded by subprime mortgage instruments
that even bank bosses didn’t understand, lawmakers are refusing to rein
in the culprits. Now we can be sure that soon we will be hoodwinked
again by some cockamamie investment good for nothing but commanding
commissions and promising trading profits for the banks. How about a
package of exchange-traded funds, peppered with ones that use leverage
and derivatives?

New York Fed probes Wall Street exposure to BP -- The Federal
Reserve Bank of New York has been probing major financial firms'
exposure to BP Plc to ensure that if the oil giant buckles under the
costs of the Gulf oil spill, it won't put Wall Street or the global
financial system at risk, according to two sources familiar with the
matter. After poring over documents and asking banks about their
exposure to BP over the past two weeks, the Fed found no systemic risk,
and hasn't asked firms to alter their credit relationships with BP, the
sources told Reuters. "The Fed gave banks' exposure to BP a passing
grade," said one of the sources on condition of anonymity.

Home Prices in U.S. Probably Rose, Consumer Confidence Declined --
Eroding home equity may limit household spending, the biggest part of
the economy, even as gains in income help revive demand. “The worst is
behind us but the potential for further price declines still exists,”
said David Semmens, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in New York.
“With the expiration of the tax credit, demand has collapsed. Why would
consumers commit to buying a house when they’re feeling nervous about
job prospects?” Command: I love the comment that the worst is behind us
but the potential for declines exists. Talk about double speak in plain
view.

The U.S. Economy is Headed For a Second-Half Slowdown -- Most
textbook economists say that the U.S. economy is engaged in a
broad-based recovery. But while there's a consensus that there's no
"double-dip" recession on the horizon, the evidence suggests the
nation's economy is headed for a slowdown in the second half of 2010.
The reason: In a market that derives 70% of its growth from consumer
spending, the last half of this year will be all about those consumers -
and about the economy's inability to generate enough jobs to keep the
nation's cash registers ringing.

The Third Depression -- Recessions are common; depressions are rare.
As far as I can tell, there were only two eras in economic history that
were widely described as “depressions” at the time: the years of
deflation and instability that followed the Panic of 1873 and the years
of mass unemployment that followed the financial crisis of 1929-31.

Cancer Therapy Goes Viral -- This article tells us that a flood of
viral based cancer therapies is becoming available and also that we are
getting pretty clever about it all. However, so far it appears we are
mostly making cancer cells sick.

Police Arrest More Than 600 at Toronto Summit -- Police raided a
university building and rounded up hundreds of protesters Sunday in an
effort to quell further violence near the G-20 global economic summit
site a day after black-clad youths rampaged through the city, smashing
windows and torching police cars.

Obama Administration Works to Meet Deadline -- Three months after
the $938 billion health care bill was signed into law, questions abound
about whether the Obama administration can meet all the deadlines in the
massive law while dealing with the political pressures of Congress.

Obama 'Internet Kill Switch' Plan Approved -- A US Senate committee
has approved a wide-ranging cybersecurity bill that some critics have
suggested would give the US president the authority to shut down parts
of the Internet during a cyberattack.

Emergency Evacuation of US Gulf Coast Imminent? -- When the first
reports broke, multiple websites were attacked for reporting on an
imminent evacuation and now, a month later, this possibility is widely
accepted. The Washington Post has even quoted Matt Simmons as saying,
“20 million to be evacuated.”

EPA Opening Public 'Decontamination Stations' -- The Escambia County
Health Department lifted a health advisory on Pensacola Beach on Friday
on the advice of a beach official and against the advice of a federal
environmental official. …

US Government Panel Now Pushing 'Vaccinations For All' -- An
advisory panel to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) has recommended that every person be vaccinated for the seasonal
flu yearly, except in a few cases where the vaccine is known to be
unsafe.

BP Says Hayward Remains CEO as Storm Alex Looms -- BP Plcdefended
its chief executive on Monday after Russia's deputy prime minister said
he expected Tony Hayward to resign soon, as a strengthening storm
threatened efforts to capture more oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

Illinois Borrowing $900 Million as Credit-Default Insurance Cost Doubles
-- Illinois plans to add $900 million in Build America Bonds to the $755
million in securities it sold in June as the cost of insuring the
state’s debt against default reached a record high. The cost of an
Illinois credit-default swap has more than doubled since April 5 to a
record of 370 basis points, or $370,000 to protect $10 million of debt,
according to CMA DataVision. The state rescheduled the Build America
sale for mid-July, after originally planning it for as early as this
week, Dow Jones reported, citing John Sinsheimer, Illinois’s capital
markets director.

Is Chinese Drywall Making Habitat for Humanity’s Houses Uninhabitable?
-- For more than a year, the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity has
insisted there were no defects in the Chinese drywall it used to build
nearly 200 houses for victims of Hurricane Katrina, including many in
its heavily publicized “Musicians’ Village’’ development in the Upper
Ninth Ward. But a house-by-house canvas of Musicians’ Village by
reporters from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and ProPublica found several
homeowners who reported serious problems and one who said she had
complained to Habitat for more than a year about corrosion and
electronics failures believed to be related to her drywall.

YouTube: Alyssa Thomas 6 Year Girl in No Fly List of Federal U S
Homeland Security -- Alyssa Thomas, 6, is a little girl who is
already under the spotlight of the federal government. Her family
recently discovered that Alyssa is on the "no fly" list maintained by
U.S. Homeland Security. "We were, like, puzzled," said Dr. Santhosh
Thomas. "I'm like, well, she's kinda six-years-old and this is not
something that should be typical." The Federal Bureau of Investigations
in Cleveland will confirm that a list exists, but for national security
reasons, no one will discuss who is on the list or why.

Angry House lawmaker cuts aid to Afghanistan -- Representative Nita
Lowey, who heads the House appropriations subcommittee on foreign aid,
vowed not to spend "one more dime" on aid to Afghanistan until she can
be sure it is not being abused. The Democrat also announced hearings on
corruption in Afghanistan, where the Obama administration is trying to
work with the government of President Hamid Karzai to confront the
Taliban insurgency. "I do not intend to appropriate one more dime for
assistance to Afghanistan until I have confidence that U.S. taxpayer
money is not being abused to line the pockets of corrupt Afghan
government officials, drug lords, and terrorists," she said.

Maimed cat walks again with artificial paws -- A cat that had both
its back legs severed by a combine harvester can walk again after being
fitted with prosthetic limbs in a world-first operation. Two-year-old
Oscar has been given a pair of artificial limbs by veterinary surgeon
Noel Fitzpatrick, using a technique developed by a University College
London team.

Today In History Monday
June 28, 2010
1776 - American Colonists repulsed a British sea attack on Charleston,
SC.
1869 - R. W. Wood was appointed as the first Surgeon General of the U.S.
Navy.
1894 - The U.S. Congress made Labor Day a U.S. national holiday.
1902 - The U.S. Congress passed the Spooner bill, it authorized a canal
to be built across the isthmus of Panama.
1919 - The Treaty of Versailles was signed ending World War I exactly
five years after it began. The treaty also established the League of
Nations.
1921 - A coal strike in Great Britain was settled after three months.
1930 - More than 1,000 communists were routed during an assault on the
British consulate in London.
1939 - Pan American Airways began the first transatlantic passenger
service.
1938 - The U.S. Congress created the Federal Housing Administration
(FHA) to insure construction loans.
1942 - German troops launched an offensive to seize Soviet oil fields in
the Caucasus and the city of Stalingrad.
1945 - U.S. General Douglas MacArthur announced the end of Japanese
resistance in the Philippines.
1949 - The last U.S. combat troops were called home from Korea, leaving
only 500 advisers.
1950 - North Korean forces captured Seoul, South Korea.
1954 - French troops began to pull out of Vietnam’s Tonkin Province.
1965 - The first commercial satellite began communications service. It
was Early Bird (Intelsat II).
1967 - Fourteen people were shot in race riots in Buffalo, New York.
1967 - Israel formally declared Jerusalem reunified under its
sovereignty following its capture of the Arab sector in the June 1967
war.
1976 - The first women entered the U.S. Air Force Academy.
1996 - The Citadel voted to admit women, ending a 153-year-old men-only
policy at the South Carolina military school.
1998 - Poland, due to shortage of funds, is allowed to lease, U.S.
aircraft to bring military force up to NATO standards.
2000 - Six-year-old Elián González returned to Cuba from the U.S. with
his father. The child had been the center of an international custody
dispute.
2001 - Slobodan Milosevic was taken into custody and was handed over to
the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. The indictment
charged Milosevic and four other senior officials, with crimes against
humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war in Kosovo.
2001 - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
set aside an order that would break up Microsoft for antitrust
violations. However, the judges did agree that the company was in
violation of antitrust laws.
2004 - The U.S. turned over official sovereignty to Iraq's interim
leadership. The event took place two days earlier than previously
announced to thwart insurgents' attempts at undermining the transfer.
2004 - The U.S. resumed diplomatic ties with Libya after a 24-year
break.

BP oil spill costs hit $100 million/day -- BP said it had spent $300
million on its Gulf of Mexico oil spill response effort in the past
three days, hitting the $100 million/day spend rate for the first time
and bringing its total bill to $2.65 billion so far.

DAY 70 - Review Of The Gulf Oil Eruption, And What The Future Holds That
You Are Not Being Told -- Let's face the fact that this gusher is
going to go on gushing every second of every day formonths to come.BP
and the government are batting 100 per cent failure when it comes to
stopping it. This leaves us with a number of scenarios and outcomes
which require unemotional attention. Unemotional, because they're all as
scarey as hell, and if we give in to fear in any way, we're more screwed
than if we'd just elected another
President of Promises.

As 1.3 Million Americans Are About To Lose Their Jobless Benefits This
Week, The Unemployment Rate Will Surge To 10.5% -- As a result of
this huge hit to endless governmental spending of future unearned money,
the WSJ reports that "a total of 1.3 million unemployed Americans will
have lost their assistance by the end of this week." Furthermore, the
cumulative number of people whose extended benefits are set to run out
absent this extension, will reach 2 million in two weeks, and continue
rising: as a reminder the DOL reported over 5.2 million Americans
currently on Extended Benefits and EUC (Tier 1-4).

G20 offers no big boost for fearful markets -- Deficit pledges made
by Group of 20 leaders on Sunday won't provide a big boost for financial
markets, with uncertainty about the strength of global economic recovery
still the larger concern for investors. Analysts said that while targets
for debt and deficit ratios included in a communique issued by G20
leaders were a mild positive, they were skeptical about their
implementation and warned markets are focused on broader issues right
now. Comment: The word to those who choose to listen is to get out of
the market now, before impending collapse occurs.

Indiana Whirlpool plant producing final refrigerators - Hundreds of
people worked their final shifts Friday at a Whirlpool Corp.
refrigerator factory in southern Indiana that has been the site of
protests over its closure. The Evansville plant's production line was
shutting down after turning out refrigerators for 54 years, meaning the
loss of some 600 jobs. About 450 other workers were laid off in March
when Whirlpool ended its second production shift. The company announced
last year that it would shut down the factory and move production to
Mexico. Whirlpool will still have a presence in the city, with 300
employees at its refrigeration design center. Comment: Viva La NAFTA!

Police clash with G20 protesters, end in standoff -- During
Saturday's violence police used tear gas against the public for the
first time ever in Canada's most populous city. Among those detained, on
charges ranging from mischief to assaulting police, were four people who
climbed through the sewer system and emerged near the lock-down area
where world leaders were attending the summit. About 70 people also were
detained after police raided the University of Toronto's downtown
campus. Police said they seized weapons, including bricks, rocks and
sticks. A local TV station said that four of its reporters were also
among those arrested at the Sunday evening standoff.

Dollar Gains Buckle as Strategists Draw Line at $1.20 -- “The euro
at $1.20 is fair value, so we’ve taken away one of the big arguments for
why the euro will fall against the dollar,” said Richard Benson, who
oversees $14 billion of currency funds as an executive director of
Millennium Asset Management in London. “The other is that the U.S.
economy will do a lot better, but it hasn’t done much better. People are
worried about a double dip in the U.S.” While Millennium has trades that
would benefit from a decline in the dollar, it reduced the size of those
positions “quite a lot,” Benson said in a telephone interview.

The Chilling Truth About Foreclosures in the US -- The larger
problem is that millions of delinquent loans are still on banks' books
and in mortgage pools. Banks seem unwilling to take more write-downs or
to incur the high cost of maintaining repossessed homes. So they have
taken to hiding behind federal and state government-foreclosure
moratoriums and a host of modification programs designed to keep
borrowers in their homes. Some of you will remember my quote from my DC
travelogue where my comment on the modification programs was..."
stacking up the bodies outside the morgue doesn't make them alive".
Comment: This article is concise, an easy read, and very well written.
(Thanks Jimm)

Deflationary Depression: Ultimate Status Symbol -- The 1929 crash
began the Great Depression and severe economic deflation. The turn in
psychology led to profoundly more frugal habits for millions of people
in the years that followed. The difference between the 1930s and today
is that the credit expansion of this generation has been far greater.
Does that mean a deflation to come that's even more severe than in the
'30s?

Court to rule on Sarbanes-Oxley and gun rights -- The Supreme Court
could strike down a key part of a 2002 corporate reform law and extend
gun rights in the United States on Monday when the justices issue their
final rulings of the term. In eagerly awaited rulings, the nation's
highest court is expected to decide the constitutionality of a national
board that polices auditors of public companies and whether gun rights
extend to every state and city in the nation. Comment: It seems those in
Washington DC do not understand that the federal government cannot
regulate what the states can and cannot do.

Suiting Up for a Post-Dollar World -- There is fresh evidence that
time is running out for the dollar-centric global monetary order. In
fact, central banks outside the US are already making swift and discrete
preparation for a post-dollar era. To begin, the People's Bank of China
has just this week decided to permit a wider trading range between the
yuan and the dollar. This is the first step toward ending the infernal
yuan-dollar peg. While the impetus behind this abrupt change remains a
mystery, I have a sneaking suspicion that, as my colleague Neeraj
Chaudhary explained in his commentary last week, the nationwide labor
strikes were a prime motivator. Comment: I was mentioning this very
subject to friends, over this past weekend, and they had no idea this
had occurred. Hold on tight, October is just around the corner. (Thanks
Jimm)

Greece starts putting island land up for sale to save economy --
Greece is raising cash by selling off an area of state-owned land on
Mykonos for luxury tourism...making it easier for the rich and famous to
fulfill their dreams by preparing to sell, or offering long-term leases
on, some of its 6,000 sunkissed islands in a desperate attempt to repay
its mountainous debts.

Gov. Schwarzenegger halts use of welfare debit cards at casinos --
Spurred by a newspaper's report that California's welfare debit cards
can be used to withdraw cash in more than half the casinos in the state,
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday issued an immediate ban on
state-provided cash assistance at ATMs in gambling establishments.

Today In History Friday
June 25, 2010
1788 - Virginia ratified the U.S. Constitution and became the 10th state
of the United States.
1864 - Union troops surrounding Petersburg, VA, began building a mine
tunnel underneath the Confederate lines.
1867 - Lucien B. Smith patented the first barbed wire.
1868 - Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina and South
Carolina were readmitted to the Union.
1876 - Lt. Col. Custer and the 210 men of U.S. 7th Cavalry were killed
by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians at Little Big Horn in Montana. The event
is known as "Custer's Last Stand."
1910 - The U.S. Congress authorized the use of postal savings stamps.
1917 - The first American fighting troops landed in France.
1941 - Finland declared war on the Soviet Union.
1946 - Ho Chi Minh traveled to France for talks on Vietnamese
independence.
1948 - The Soviet Union tightened its blockade of Berlin by intercepting
river barges heading for the city.
1950 - North Korea invaded South Korea initiating the Korean War.
1951 - In New York, the first regular commercial color TV transmissions
were presented on CBS using the FCC-approved CBS Color System. The
public did not own color TV's at the time.
1962 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the use of unofficial
non-denominational prayer in public schools was unconstitutional.
1964 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson ordered 200 naval personnel to
Mississippi to assist in finding three missing civil rights workers.
1973 - White House Counsel John Dean admitted that U.S. President Nixon
took part in the Watergate cover-up.
1981 - The U.S. Supreme Court decided that male-only draft registration
was constitutional.
1986 - The U.S. Congress approved $100 million in aid to the Contras
fighting in Nicaragua.
1996 - Outside the Khobar Towers near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia a truck bomb
exploded. The bomb killed 19 Americans and injured over 500 Saudis and
Americans.
1997 - The Russian space station Mir was hit by an unmanned cargo
vessel. Much of the power supply was knocked out and the station's
Spektr module was severely damaged.
1997 - U.S. air pollution standards were significantly tightened by U.S.
President Clinton.
1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the line-item veto thereby
striking down presidential power to cancel specific items in tax and
spending legislation.
1999 - Germany's parliament approved a national Holocaust memorial to be
built in Berlin.
2000 - A Florida judge approved a class-action lawsuit to be filed
against American Online (AOL) on behalf of hourly subscribers who were
forced to view "pop-up" advertisements.

Hurricane Darby becomes a Category 2 storm -- Hurricane Darby has
strengthened to a Category 2 storm in the Pacific off Mexico's coast.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Darby's maximum sustained
winds early Friday are near 105 mph (165 kph) and the storm could become
a major hurricane later in the day.

Caribbean Storms Strengthen, May Head for Oil Spill -- The first
tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season has a 60 percent chance
of forming this weekend, with one computer model indicating it could
head into the Gulf of Mexico where BP Plc has a flotilla of vessels
trying to clean up an oil spill. A collection of thunderstorms was
intensifying in the Caribbean off Honduras and Nicaragua, the U.S.
National Hurricane Center said at 2 a.m. Miami time today. The center
said its forecast for the system turning into a tropical storm would
evolve over the next 48 hours as it heads toward Mexico’s Yucatan
peninsula.

The Coming U.S. Real Estate Crash -- Right now the United States is
heading for another real estate crash. The only thing that has been
holding it back was the huge bribe (called a tax credit) that the U.S.
government was giving people to buy houses. Now that the tax credit has
expired, there is no artificial incentive to buy homes and the real
estate market has fallen through the floor. Unfortunately, there is
every indication that things are going to get even worse. Read on to
find out why....

Methane in Gulf "astonishingly high": U.S. scientist -- As much as 1
million times the normal level of methane gas has been found in some
regions near the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, enough to potentially deplete
oxygen and create a dead zone, U.S. scientists said on Tuesday.

No Extension of Unemployment Compensation -- The 57-41 vote fell
three votes short of the 60 required to crack a GOP filibuster,
delivering a major blow to President Barack Obama and Democrats facing
big losses of House and Senate seats in the fall election. The rejected
bill would have provided $16 billion in new aid to states, preserving
the jobs of thousands of state and local government workers and
providing what White House officials called an insurance policy against
a double-dip recession. It included dozens of tax breaks sought by
business lobbyists and tax increases on domestically produced oil and on
investment fund managers.

Lunar Eclipse Graces Sky Saturday, June 26 -- Best time to view
lunar eclipse will be 5:17am-8am CDT (between 3:17am-6am PDT) this
Saturday, June 26. A solar eclipse will follow in a few weeks on July 11
and there will be a total lunar eclipse on December 10. While the
eclipse will even be visible in Hawaii, most folks who live along the
East Coast won't be able to see it because it will occur while the moon
is below the horizon.

Open letter to
President Obama -- "It is time for your administration to come up
with a serious plan that can be implemented immediately in order to
alleviate the deepening impact this disaster is having on the American
people. I have some suggestions for what the Federal Government’s
response should be." Read More...

Rise Of
The New Gold Rush -- They called us “kooks” and “crackpots”. They
said our ideas were outdated and incompatible with modern finance. They
said it wouldn’t last. Oh yes, Gold, they said, was a silly investment
with no inherent value, and soon, precious metals investors would be
“wiped out” by the “inevitable implosion of the gold bubble” (gold
bubble….?). Mainstream establishment economists and Keynesians have been
yipping and snarling like overanxious Chihuahuas for the past two years
against gold and silver, most specifically their use as a hedge against
collapse in stocks and currencies. As it turns out (and just as we
expected), gold and silver have held strong and even made record gains.
Gold is one of the top performing investments of the decade, rising over
277% in value from 1999 to 2009.

VIDEO REPORT: Schiff Wants A Gold Standard -- Peter Schiff,
President of Euro Pacific Capital and author of "How an Economy Grows
And Why It Crashes", reveals why he wants the return of the gold
standard and how he's buying gold.

10 Tip-Offs You're Heading for a Debt Disaster -- Like most of
life's major problems, a debt disaster doesn't happen overnight. There
are clear warning signs that crushing debt could grow out of control.
Here are 10 Tip-Offs that you're heading for a debt disaster. See how
you score.

Unique Job Search Tactics That Work -- Doing something very
different seems to be the name of the game in a job market in which
unemployment remains stubbornly high. Nearly a quarter of hiring
managers say they are seeing unique tactics by candidates -- up from 12
percent in 2008, according to a recent survey by CareerBuilder.com.

Boeing Says 787s May Need New Tail Parts After Inspections -- Boeing
Co., more than two years behind schedule in delivering the 787
Dreamliner, said it will inspect 23 aircraft after discovering that tail
parts on some planes had been improperly installed. Boeing recently
identified a “workmanship issue” with the 787’s horizontal stabilizers,
the Chicago-based airplane maker said in a statement yesterday. The
stabilizers, which are part of the tail section of the plane, are used
to keep the aircraft level during flight. Comment: This is why I always
say, "If I cannot drive there, I don't need to go there." (Thanks
Jimm)!

Half of all modified mortgages redefault within a year -- More than
half of all homeowners with modified mortgages fell at least two months
behind in their payments a year after the adjustment was made, according
to a federal report released Wednesday. However, the data also shows
that modifications made in 2009, which emphasized reduced monthly
payments, may perform better. Only 40.7% of loans modified in the second
quarter last year were delinquent after nine months, compared to 51.6%
of those adjusted at the end of 2008, according to the report, published
by the Office of Thrift Supervision and Comptroller of the Currency.

Carnegie Mellon University Bombardier in high-tech venture -- A new
Carnegie Mellon University venture will try to make Pittsburgh an
international focal point for advanced research on smart infrastructure
systems, like sensors that monitor bridges and pipelines and robotic
systems that control transit vehicles. The university and the Bombardier
transportation company will open a $2.2 million research center on
advanced infrastructure systems this fall, the university announced
Thursday.

Today In History Thursday
June 24, 2010
1861 - Federal gunboats attacked Confederate batteries at Mathias Point,
Virginia.
1862 - U.S. intervention saved the British and French at the Dagu forts
in China.
1896 - Booker T. Washington became the first African American to receive
an honorary MA degree from Howard University.
1910 - The Japanese army invaded Korea.
1913 - Greece and Serbia annulled their alliance with Bulgaria following
border disputes over Macedonia and Thrace.
1931 - The Soviet Union and Afghanistan signed a treaty of neutrality.
1940 - France signed an armistice with Italy.
1940 - TV cameras were used for the first time in a political convention
as the Republicans convened in Philadelphia, PA.
1941 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt pledged all possible support to
the Soviet Union.
1947 - Kenneth Arnold reported seeing flying saucers over Mt. Rainier,
Washington.
1948 - The Soviet Union began the Berlin Blockade.
1953 - John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier announced their
engagement.
1955 - Soviet MIG's down a U.S. Navy patrol plane over the Bering
Strait.
1962 - The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-7, after 22
innings.
1964 - The Federal Trade Commission announced that starting in 1965,
cigarette manufactures would be required to include warnings on their
packaging about the harmful effects of smoking.
1968 - "Resurrection City," a shantytown constructed as part of the Poor
People's March on Washington D.C., was closed down by authorities.
1970 - The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution.
1970 - The movie "Myra Breckinridge" premiered.
1971 - The National Basketball Association modified its four-year
eligibility rule to allow for collegiate hardship cases.
1975 - 113 people were killed when an Eastern Airlines Boeing 727
crashed while attempting to land during a thunderstorm at New York's
John F. Kennedy International Airport.
1997 - 18-year-old Melissa Drexler was charged with murder in the death
of her baby. Drexler had given birth during her prom.
1997 - The U.S. Air Force released a report on the "Roswell Incident,"
suggesting the alien bodies witnesses reported seeing in 1947 were
actually life-sized dummies.
1998 - Walt Disney World Resort admitted its 600-millionth guest.
2002 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juries, not judges, must make
the decision to give a convicted killer the death penalty.

Petraeus replaces McChrystal -- President Barack Obama has picked
General David Petraeus to replace Gen. Stanly McChrystal as the
commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The appointment came
after President Obama fired, Gen. McChrystal over criticizing White
House officials in an interview with Rolling Stone.

June deadliest month in Afghanistan -- Six more US-led soldiers have
been killed in Afghanistan, making June the deadliest single month for
foreign troops in the nearly nine-year-long conflict.

Inmates Get
Homebuyer Tax Credits: Gov't Report -- Nearly 1,300 prison inmates
wrongly received more than $9 million in tax credits for homebuyers
despite being locked up when they claimed they bought a home, a
government investigator reported Wednesday. The investigator said 241 of
the inmates were serving life sentences.

Over 2 million cribs recalled amid safety concerns -- More than 2
million cribs from seven companies were recalled Thursday amid concerns
that babies can suffocate, become trapped or fall from the cribs. Most
of the cribs were drop-sides, which have a side rail that moves up and
down so parents can lift children from them more easily. That movable
side, however, can malfunction or detach from the crib, creating a
dangerous gap where babies' heads can become trapped, leading to
suffocation or strangulation. The companies involved in the recall were
Evenflo, Delta Enterprises Corp., Child Craft, Jardine Enterprises,
LaJobi, Million Dollar Baby and Simmons Juvenile Products Inc.

We Created a Culture of Job Insecurity -- People used to have
stable, permanent jobs. Now we live in constant dread of losing their
jobs to foreign competition and outsourcing. This Increased job
competition has led to reduction in wages and consequently lower
standards of living. People around the globe are more connected to each
other then ever before.

More oil gushing into Gulf after problem with cap -- Tens of
thousands of gallons more oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico on
Wednesday after an undersea robot bumped a venting system, forcing BP to
remove the cap that had been containing some of the crude. The setback,
yet another in the nine-week effort to stop the gusher, came as thick
pools of oil washed up on Pensacola Beach in Florida and the Obama
administration tried to figure out how to resurrect a six-month
moratorium on deepwater drilling.

Last South Dakota code talker buried -- The last of the American
Indian code talkers of South Dakota who served during World War II has
been laid to rest. Clarence Wolf Guts of Wanblee was buried Tuesday in
Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis. The 86-year-old Wolf Guts
died June 16 at the South Dakota Veterans Home in Hot Springs. Wolf Guts
was one of 11 Lakota, Nakota and Dakota code talkers from South Dakota.
During the war, they transmitted messages from an Army general to his
chief of staff in the field using their native tongue, which the Germans
and the Japanese could not translate.

U.S. sending aerial drone to Texas border -- The Obama
administration announced Wednesday that it will station an aerial drone
in Texas as part of its stepped-up surveillance of criminal trafficking
along the Mexican border. Federal authorities also have signed an
agreement to allow local police from non-border communities to
temporarily "deploy" to the border region to assist with security, said
Janet Napolitano, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

Tarmac fiasco renews call for international rules -- A hot, dark and
miserable four-hour stretch spent by hundreds of travelers parked in a
diverted trans-Atlantic plane renewed calls Wednesday to add
international travel to a months-old federal rule limiting how long
airlines can keep passengers trapped on the tarmac. Read More...

Gulf oil spill: Boat captain, despondent over spill, commits suicide
-- William Allen Kruse, 55, a charter boat captain recently hired by BP
as a vessel of opportunity out of Gulf Shores, Ala., died Wednesday
morning before 7:30 a.m. of a gunshot to the head, likely
self-inflicted, authorities said. "He had been quite despondent about
the oil crisis," said Stan Vinson, coroner for Baldwin County, which
includes Gulf Shores.

Over 2 million cribs recalled amid safety concerns -- More than 2
million cribs from seven companies were recalled Thursday amid concerns
that babies can suffocate, become trapped or fall from the cribs. Most
of the cribs were drop-sides, which have a side rail that moves up and
down so parents can lift children from them more easily. That movable
side, however, can malfunction or detach from the crib, creating a
dangerous gap where babies' heads can become trapped, leading to
suffocation or strangulation. The companies involved in the recall were
Evenflo, Delta Enterprises Corp., Child Craft, Jardine Enterprises,
LaJobi, Million Dollar Baby and Simmons Juvenile Products Inc.

Myth of a CIA War -- But we are aware of course, that the effort is
not only determined, it is one of great sophistication as well. We know
this because we are told over and over that the CIA runs both sides of
the war – helping harvest poppy crops (along with Marines) in order to
provide funding as necessary. Yes, this is increasingly reported with
requisite eagerness and cynicism by both the mainstream and alternative
media. True or not, some reporters simply cannot fathom the idea that
the US military-industrial complex, and the Anglo-American axis
generally, is not in control of a given situation. The US always wins,
of course, except when it chooses to lose.

A Look At Gibson's Paradox And Gold -- Yes, lowering interest rates
ignited the stock market in the 1990s. We also got an epic bull market
in bonds. By suppressing the gold price, we got a "Strong Dollar."
However, we got some other things as well. We got serial speculative
bubbles which inflated and then collapsed. The dotcom and real estate
bubbles each vaporized TRILLIONS of dollars of wealth. We also got
malinvestment, as artificially low interest rates conveyed a FALSE
picture of the economy to businesses and to ordinary investors.

New Doctor Intern Inspections to Cost Hospitals $15,000 Yearly --
Hospitals will be required to reduce physician interns’ working hours
and be inspected yearly to ensure the first-year doctors are properly
supervised and getting enough time off under newly proposed rules. The
Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, a nonprofit
organization that evaluates more than 8,800 U.S. residency programs,
outlined the proposed policies in a paper published today in the New
England Journal of Medicine. The procedures would trim the length of
time interns can be on call to 16 hours from 30 previously and require
greater supervision of the new doctors.

Gold
Report - Ominous Signs! -- My experience is that hope is food for
the masses, and it is the last asset you have on your balance sheet
before you come to the realization you're bankrupt! The average investor
ignores the fact that his IRA is worth less than it was two or three
years ago, Social Security is bankrupt, Medicare is worthless, he is
swimming in debt and his dollar buys less than it did 10 years ago. He
reads his Sunday paper and takes relief from the fact that Obama will
"kick some ass." Then he goes to sleep Sunday night hoping that somehow
it will all work out. Lately he's been waking up at 3 a.m. with an
uneasy feeling, but he keeps telling himself to ignore it.

Bin Laden hunter arrives home in Colorado -- In Pakistan, he told
officials he was out to kill the al-Qaeda leader. Faulkner, who is
unemployed, sold his construction tools to finance six trips on what
relatives have called a Rambo-type mission to kill or capture bin Laden.
Scott Faulkner said last week that his brother wasn't crazy, just
determined to find the man America's military has failed to capture
nearly a decade after the 9/11 attacks. Comment: Perhaps this misguided
person needs Scooby Doo to help work on this mystery. Or, maybe the
ghost whisperer.

Today In History Wednesday
June 23, 2010
1760 - The Austrians defeated the Prussians at Landshut, Germany.
1757 - Robert Clive defeated the Indians at Plassey and won control of
Bengal.
1836 - The U.S. Congress approved the Deposit Act, which contained a
provision for turning over surplus federal revenue to the states.
1860 - The U.S. Secret Service was created to arrest counterfeiters.
1865 - Confederate General Stand Watie, who was also a Cherokee chief,
surrendered the last sizable Confederate army at Fort Towson, in the
Oklahoma Territory.
1868 - Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention that
he called a "Type-Writer."
1884 - A Chinese Army defeated the French at Bacle, Indochina.
1902 - Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy renewed the Triple Alliance
for a 12 year duration.
1931 - Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from New York on the first
round-the-world flight in a single-engine plane.
1934 - Italy gained the right to colonize Albania after defeating the
country.
1938 - The Civil Aeronautics Authority was established.
1938 - Marineland opened near St. Augustine, Florida.
1947 - The U.S. Senate joined the House in overriding President Truman's
veto of the Taft-Hartley Act.
1951 - Soviet U.N. delegate Jacob Malik proposed cease-fire discussions
in the Korean War.
1952 - The U.S. Air Force bombed power plants on Yalu River, Korea.
1956 - Gamal Abdel Nasser was elected president of Egypt.
1964 - Henry Cabot Lodge resigned as the U.S. envoy to Vietnam and was
succeeded by Maxwell Taylor.
1966 - Civil Rights marchers in Mississippi were dispersed by tear gas.
1972 - U.S. President Nixon and White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman
discussed a plan to use the CIA to obstruct the FBI's Watergate
investigation.
1985 - All 329 people aboard an Air-India Boeing 747 were killed when
the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland. The cause was
thought to be a bomb.
1992 - John Gotti was sentenced in New York to life in prison after
being convicted of racketeering charges.
1997 - Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X, died in New York of burns
suffered in a fire set by her 12-year old grandson. She was 61.
2003 - Apple Computer Inc. unveiled the new Power Mac desktop computer.
2004 - The U.S. proposed that North Korea agree to a series of nuclear
disarmament measures over a three-month period in exchange for economic
benefits.

McChrystal's Fate in Limbo as He Prepares to Meet Obama -- President
Obama plans to decide the fate of his top commander in Afghanistan
Wednesday after a firestorm over remarks the general and members of his
staff made that were contemptuous of senior administration officials.
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal has prepared a letter of resignation, though
President Obama had not made up his mind whether to accept it when they
meet Wednesday morning.

White House's offshore-drilling moratorium blocked by judge -- A
federal judge in New Orleans on Tuesday blocked a six-month moratorium
on new deepwater drilling projects imposed in response to the massive
Gulf oil spill. The White House promised an immediate appeal. President
Barack Obama's administration had halted approval of any new permits for
deepwater drilling and suspended drilling of 33 exploratory wells in the
Gulf.

US Dollar Value Falls and Gold Goes Higher by End of Year -- Last
week, three stories acted as signposts for the direction of the U.S.
Dollar value. The first is about a letter President Obama sent to
members of the G20 (Group of 20 major industrial countries) in advance
of next weekend’s meeting in Canada.

Ron Paul editorial: Too Much Government in the Gulf -- The real
problem is not so much a lack of government assistance, but government
getting in the way of those who have solutions. We witnessed the same
phenomenon during hurricanes Katrina and Ike. It seems government's main
role in these situations is to find excuses to stall relief, hold
meetings and press conferences, waste money, punish the wrong people,
and over-regulate. Yet even after many examples of past incompetence,
people still look to government to solve problems in the wake of
disasters. A government that tries to be all things to all people might
engender a lot of learned dependence, but ultimately it only harms the
very people it is supposed to serve as they wait helplessly for
salvation from Washington.

Bees fitted with tiny ID tags for study -- Bees are being fitted
with tiny radio ID tags to monitor their movements as part of research
into whether pesticides could be giving the insects brain disorders,
scientists said.

Air tests from the Louisiana coast reveal human health threats from the
oil disaster -- Today the Louisiana Environmental Action Network
released its analysis of air monitoring test results by the
Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA's air testing data comes from
Venice, a coastal community 75 miles south of New Orleans in Louisiana's
Plaquemines Parish. The findings show that levels of airborne chemicals
have far exceeded state standards and what's considered safe for human
exposure.

Judge who nixed drilling ban has oil investments -- The Louisiana
judge who struck down the Obama administration's six-month ban on
deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has reported extensive
investments in the oil and gas industry, according to financial
disclosure reports. He's also a new member of a secret national security
court.

Monsanto GM seed ban is overturned by US Supreme Court -- The
bio-tech company Monsanto can sell genetically modified seeds before
safety tests on them are completed, the US Supreme Court has ruled. A
lower court had barred the sale of the modified alfalfa seeds until an
environmental impact study could be carried out.

Now scientists read your mind better than you can -- Brain scans may
be able to predict what you will do better than you can yourself, and
might offer a powerful tool for advertisers or health officials seeking
to motivate consumers, researchers said on Tuesday.

New Moon Map Shows Uranium in Short Supply -- A new map of uranium
on the moon has revealed the lunar surface to be a poor source of the
radioactive stuff, but it could help solve mysteries as to how the moon
formed. This new moon uranium map dampens hopes of a nuclear power
industry on the lunar surface, researchers said.

Run to the Canadian Border -- For some time now, we’ve been
advocating higher than normal allocations to both cash and gold. That’s
because, during this transitory phase, both cash and gold offer
protection against deflationary threats and crisis in general. In time,
as monetary inflation begins to morph into price inflation, you’ll want
to phase out of your cash and into gold and other tangibles. For now,
however, the low carrying cost of cash, that is the result of low yields
(and therefore a lower lost opportunity cost) and tame price inflation,
make it a relatively low risk and useful asset.

Soros says Germany could cause euro collapse -- German's budget
savings policy risks destroying the European project and a collapse of
the euro cannot be ruled out, billionaire investor George Soros said in
a newspaper interview released on Wednesday. "German policy is a danger
for Europe, it could destroy the European project," he told German
weekly Die Zeit. Soros, who earned $1 billion in 1992 by betting against
the British pound, added that he "could not rule out a collapse of the
euro."

HUMAN EVENTS Exclusive: Senator Jim DeMint - Balance or Crumble --
The Democrats still believe they can spend their way out of the
recession. They’re wrong, but they may bankrupt the country proving
their critics right. The only way Congress will ever get serious about
cutting spending is by adding a balanced budget amendment to the
Constitution. I introduced a bill to do this last February. If ratified
the amendment would prohibit the federal government from spending more
than it collects each year. It would require a two-thirds majority vote
to raise taxes. And Congress would be able to waive the balanced-budget
requirement with a two-thirds majority only in limited circumstances,
like during time of war. Comment: I think it's interesting that
DeMint includes the idea that balanced budgets can be waved "in time of
war". When the US is in perpetual war, this seems like a smoke screen
for nothing changing. (Thanks Jimm)

Web site to view speed
traps -- The maps will show you speed traps around the world. It
works in the same manner that Mapquest (or any map program) works.
Pretty interesting.

Today In History Tuesday
June 22, 2010
1772 - Slavery was outlawed in England.
1807 - British seamen board the USS Chesapeake, a provocation leading to
the War of 1812.
1868 - Arkansas was re-admitted to the Union.
1870 - The U.S. Congress created the Department of Justice.
1911 - King George V of England was crowned.
1915 - Austro-German forces occupied Lemberg on the Eastern Front as the
Russians retreat.
1925 - France and Spain agreed to join forces against Abd el Krim in
Morocco.
1933 - Germany became a one political party country when Hitler banned
parties other than the Nazis.
1940 - France and Germany signed an armistice at Compiegne, on terms
dictated by the Nazis.
1941 - Under the codename Barbarossa, Germany invaded the Soviet Union.
1942 - A Japanese submarine shelled Fort Stevens at the mouth of the
Columbia River.
1942 - V-Mail, or Victory-Mail, was sent for the first time.
1944 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the "GI Bill of Rights"
to provide broad benefits for veterans of the war.
1945 - During World War II, the battle for Okinawa officially ended
after 81 days.
1946 - Jet airplanes were used to transport mail for the first time.
1964 - The U.S. Supreme Court voted that Henry Miller’s book, "Tropic of
Cancer", could not be banned.
1969 - Judy Garland died from an accidental overdose of prescription
sleeping aids. She was 47.
1970 - U.S. President Richard Nixon signed 26th amendment, lowering the
voting age to 18.
1973 - Skylab astronauts splashed down safely in the Pacific after a
record 28 days in space.
1977 - John N. Mitchell became the first former U.S. Attorney General to
go to prison as he began serving a sentence for his role in the
Watergate cover-up.
1978 - James W. Christy and Robert S. Harrington discovered the only
known moon of Pluto. The moon is named Charon.
1980 - The Soviet Union announced a partial withdrawal of its forces
from Afghanistan.
1981 - Mark David Chapman pled guilty to killing John Lennon.
1989 - The government of Angola and the anti-Communist rebels of the
UNITA movement agreed to a formal truce in their 14-year-old civil war.
1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that evidence illegally obtained by
authorities could be used at revocation hearings for a convicted
criminal's parole.
1998 - The 75th National Marbles Tournament begins in Wildwood, NJ.
1999 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that persons with remediable
handicaps cannot claim discrimination in employment under the Americans
with Disability Act.

Vast amounts of methane in Gulf spill pose threat -- Vast amounts of
natural gas contained in crude escaping from the blown Gulf of Mexico
oil well could pose a serious threat to marine life by creating "dead
zones" where oxygen is so depleted that nothing lives.

Is Gold Really in a Bubble? -- There is nothing magical about it.
The overprinting of fiat money causes economies to break down. Then the
only solution for these debt-based money systems is the printing of more
money to counteract the inevitable price deflation. But when the
business cycles are severe, and fiat money loses considerable and
obvious value, gold (and silver) rise, relatively speaking. In fact,
gold and silver, being money metals, are merely reflecting the loss of
value of paper and electronic fiat money.

North America faces years of toxic oil rain from BP oil spill chemical
dispersants -- When you pour more than a million gallons of toxic
chemical dispersants on top of an oil spill, it doesn’t just disappear.
In this case, it moves to the atmosphere, where it will travel hundreds,
if not thousands of miles from the site of the BP oil spill, in the form
of toxic rain. BP’s oil spill-fighting dispersant of choice is Corexit
9500. It has been banned in Europe for good reason. Corexit 9500 is one
of the most environmentally enduring, toxic chemical dispersants ever
created to battle an oil spill. Add to that the millions of gallons of
oil that have been burned, releasing even more toxins into the
atmosphere, and you have a recipe for something much worse than acid
rain.

UN vehicles in Florida getting ready? -- Remember, Northcom carried
out that Operational Readiness Inspection from May 16-23, getting ready
for mass evacuations and mass casualties from a chemical attack.

BEHOLD THE PALE HORSE IN THE GULF -- eerily prophetic? behold a pale
horse. ORIGINAL CAPTION: And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his
name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power
was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with
sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the
earth. —Revelation 6:8

Gassed in the Gulf (Part I): New Gulf War Syndrome -- The petro-chemical-military-industrial
complex is gassing Gulf Coast residents with poisonous Benzene and
Corexit dispersant at dangerously high levels in the largest U.S.
domestic military operation to date. The military and FEMA are engaged
in Emergency Plans for 36 urban areas from Texas to Florida due to the
unstoppable Gulf oil volcano the size of Mt. Everest, as WMR reports,
indicating evacuations. Some people are advised to relocate now.

Gulf Oil Spill Pictures: Birds, Fish, Crabs Coated -- Nearly 800
dead birds, sea turtles, dolphins, and other animals have been found in
the Gulf and on its shores, according to federal authorities cited by
the Associated Press. But the real story may be the rate at which
animals are being affected by oil, which appears to have accelerated
drastically in recent days.

Council on Foreign Relations Warns US Dollar and Debt Structure at
Tipping Points -- In a paper that may very well be viewed as the
most important paper warning about the current financial debt situation
in the United States, Francis E. Warnock argues, in a paper published by
the Council on Foreign Relations, that the United States was at the
tipping point in 2009 of a collapse of its bond market, but was saved,
ironically enough, by the Greek financial crisis, which caused a flight
into the U.S. Treasury market.

Armada of US and Israeli Warships Head for Iran -- More than twelve
U.S. and Israeli warships, including an aircraft carrier, passed through
the Suez Canal on Friday and are headed for the Red Sea. “According to
eyewitnesses, the U.S. battleships were the largest to have crossed the
Canal in many years,” reported the London-based newspaper al-Quds
al-Arabi on Saturday.

Obama Administration in Court That Individual Mandate Is a Tax -- In
order to protect the new national health care law from legal challenges,
the Obama administration has been forced to argue that the individual
mandate represents a tax -- even though Obama himself argued the exact
opposite while campaigning to pass the legislation.

BP Burning Sea Turtles Alive -- A rare and endangered species of sea
turtle is being burned alive in BP's controlled burns of the oil
swirling around the Gulf of Mexico, and a boat captain tasked with
saving them says the company has blocked rescue efforts.

As Tar Balls Hit More Beaches, Politicians Make More Waves -- The
effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill continued to spread eastward
Sunday, leaving tar balls along the white beaches of the Florida
Panhandle, while Washington lawmakers maneuvered through the tricky
political currents of the unprecedented environmental disaster.

8 Dead Among 52 Shot Across City Over Weekend -- Eight people were
killed and at least 44 others were shot across the city Friday night
into early Monday, including a baby girl who suffered a graze wound to
the neck when gunfire erupted at a Near West Side barbecue

Nebraska Town to Vote on Illegal Immigrations Measures -- Angered by
a recent influx of Hispanic workers attracted by jobs at local
meatpacking plants, voters in the eastern Nebraska city of Fremont will
decide Monday whether to ban hiring or renting property to illegal
immigrants.

Senator: Obama Told Me He's Not Securing Border on Purpose --
Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl told the audience at a North Tempe
Tea Party town hall meeting that during a private, one-on-one meeting
with President Obama in the Oval Office, the President told him,
regarding securing the southern border with Mexico.

Acid Gel Could Replace Dentist's Drills -- A painless alternative to
dental drills is already on the market in some parts of Europe,
suggesting that drills may become altogether obsolete within the next
few years.

Japan, Russia and US warships to Dock in S.F. -- San Francisco will
host sailors from three different navies this weekend, including a port
call by a U.S. cruiser, a Japanese training squadron and a rare visit by
a Russian guided missile cruiser.

Today In History Monday June
21, 2010 - It's the first day of SUMMER!!1788 - The U.S.
Constitution went into effect when New Hampshire became the ninth state
to ratify it.
1859 - Andrew Lanergan received the first rocket patent.
1913 - Georgia Broadwick became the first woman to jump from an
airplane.
1937 - In Paris, Leon Blum's Popular Front Cabinet resigned.
1938 - In Washington, U.S. President Roosevelt signed the $3.75 billion
Emergency Relief Appropriation Act.
1939 - Lou Gehrig quit baseball due to illness.
1941 - German troops entered Russia on a front from the Arctic to Black
Sea.
1945 - Pan Am announced an 88-hour round-the-world flight at a cost of
$700.
1954 - The American Cancer Society reported significantly higher death
rates among cigarette smokers than among non-smokers.
1958 - In Arkansas, a federal judge let Little Rock delay school
integration.
1963 - France announced that they were withdrawing from the North
Atlantic NATO fleet.
1964 - Three civil rights workers disappeared in Philadelphia, MS. Their
bodies were found on August 4, 1964 in an earthen dam. Eight Ku Klux
Klan members later went to federal prison on conspiracy charges.
1973 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states may ban materials found
to be obscene according to local standards.
1982 - A jury in Washington, DC, found John Hinckley Jr. innocent by
reason of insanity in the shootings of U.S. President Reagan and three
other men.
1989 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag as a
form of political protest was protected by the First Amendment.
2001 - In Alexandria, VA, a U.S. federal grand jury indicted 13 Saudis
and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia
that killed 19 American servicemen.
2003 - The fifth Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix," was published by J.K. Rowling. Amazon.com shipped out more
than one million copies on this day making the day the largest
distribution day of a single item in e-commerce history. The book set
sales records around the world with an estimated 5 million copies were
sold on the first day.

Possible oily rain in Texas -- "I have no idea what was in the rain
collected earlier, but I know we have never seen anything like this
before. We've been collecting rain water for many years due to droughts
in our area in the last couple of years."

BP Oil and the Political Agenda -- According to F. William Engdahl,
author of 'A Century of War' about oil and politics, he states in his
latest article from June 10th, that, "The Obama Administration and
Senior BP officials are frantically working not to stop the world's
worst oil disaster, but to hide the true extent of the actual ecological
catastrophe."

Gulf
Oil Showing Radiation In New Test -- Initial radiation tests on a
sample of oil washing ashore near Shalimar Florida conducted on Friday
seem to confirm that the oil coming from the Deep Horizon blow out is
carrying some radiation.

California on 'Verge of System Failure' -- Case files piling up by
the thousands, phones ringing off the hook, forced midweek courthouse
closings and occasional brawls as frustrated citizens queue for hours to
pay parking fines.

China Officially Disses the Dollar -- The Peoples Bank of China has
announced that it will no longer fix its currency in terms of the
dollar. Instead it will manage the yuan against a basket of currencies.

Gulf Residents Outraged by BP's CEO Yacht Outing -- Just when it
seemed Gulf residents couldn't get any more outraged about the massive
oil spill fouling their coastline, word came Saturday that BP's CEO was
taking time off to attend a glitzy yacht race in England.

Medvedev Pushes Ruble Reserve Currency -- Russia wants the ruble to
be one of the world’s reserve currencies as President Dmitry Medvedev
renews his push to reduce the dollar’s dominance and make Moscow a
global financial hub.

Jailed for Debt in the U.S. in the 21st Century -- More than a
hundred and fifty years ago, Americans were thrown into jail for not
paying their debts, until the country did away with so-called debtors’
prisons in 1833. Today, similar punishments have returned for those in
over their heads in debts.

Blackwater Firm Gets $120M U.S. Gov't Contract -- CBS News has
learned in an exclusive report that the State Department has awarded a
part of what was formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide a contract worth
more than $120 million for providing security services in Afghanistan.

Honeybee Collapse: Stung from Behind -- Distracted by a mysterious
rash of dying bees, researchers may be overlooking a more insidious
pollinator crisis. It has little to do with bees and everything to do
with booming markets for raspberries, pears, and chocolate.

Today In History Friday June
18, 2010
1778 - Britain evacuated Philadelphia during the U.S. Revolutionary War.
1812 - The War of 1812 began as the U.S. declared war against Great
Britain. The conflict began over trade restrictions.
1815 - At the Battle of Waterloo Napoleon was defeated by an
international army under the Duke of Wellington.
1817 - London's Waterloo Bridge opened. The bridge, designed by John
Rennie, was built over the River Thames.
1873 - Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote for a U.S.
President.
1898 - Atlantic City, NJ, opened its Steel Pier.
1915 - During World War I, the second battle of Artois ended.
1918 - Allied forces on the Western Front began their largest
counter-attack against the German army.
1925 - The first degree in landscape architecture was granted by Harvard
University.
1927 - The U.S. Post Office offered a special 10-cent postage stamp for
sale. The stamp was of Charles Lindbergh’s "Spirit of St. Louis."
1928 - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic
Ocean as she completed a flight from Newfoundland to Wales.
1936 - Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano was found guilty on 62 counts of
compulsory prostitution.
1936 - The first bicycle traffic court was established in Racine, WI.
1939 - The CBS radio network aired "Ellery Queen" for the first time.
1942 - The U.S. Navy commissioned its first black officer, Harvard
University medical student Bernard Whitfield Robinson.
1953 - Egypt was proclaimed to be a republic with General Neguib as its
first president.
1959 - A Federal Court annulled the Arkansas law allowing school
closings to prevent integration.
1959 - The first telecast received from England was broadcast in the
U.S. over NBC-TV.
1979 - In Vienna, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev signed
the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) 2.
1983 - Dr. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space aboard
the space shuttle Challenger.
1996 - Richard Allen Davis was convicted in San Jose, CA, of the 1993
kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas.
1997 - Sirhan Sirhan was denied parole for the 10th time. He had
assissinated presidential candidate Robert Kennedy in 1968.
2000 - In Algiers, Algeria, the foreign ministers of Ethiopia and
Eritrea signed a preliminary cease-fire accord and agreed to work toward
a permanent settlement of their two-year border war.
2002 - In Jerusalem, a suicide bomber killed 19 people and injured at
least 50 more on a city bus. Militant group Hamas claimed responsibility
for the attack.
2009 - NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/LCROSS probes to
the Moon. It was the first American lunar mission since Lunar Prospector
in 1998.

Mystery Meat Macrophotography -- Here is a 2x magnification shot,
showing you a bit more detail of the salami texture. Here, you can see
the fat blobs in greater detail. Note, too, that the redness of the meat
in this picture comes primarily from the sodium nitrite additive, an
ingredient I've written about extensively on NewsTarget.com due to its
well-documented link to various health problems.

National Guard Training for Riot Control, Mass Detentions -- In a
previous story we noted that Reports Surfacing of Multi-State National
Guard Mobilizations. Further information made available after our
report, much of which was published in the comment section by
contributors who scoured the web for more information on the subject,
suggests that the report was true and that national guard units had
indeed been called up for training and possible deployment for domestic
emergencies.

Huge Miss From Philly Fed: Comes in at 8, Expected at 20 -- Philly
Fed drops from 21.4 to 8, worst since August of 2009. Expected at 20.Why
is the market down on this? This means that the Fed will soon have its
Congress OpCo legalize a) negative interest rates and b) make holding
any cash in deposit or money market funds treason.

Oil Spill Animations -- This animation shows one scenario of how oil
released at the location of the Deepwater Horizon disaster on April 20
in the Gulf of Mexico may move in the upper 65 feet of the ocean.

More Than 90
Banks Miss TARP Payments -- More than 90 U.S. banks and thrifts
missed making a May 17 payment to the U.S. government under its main
bank bailout program, signaling a rising number of lenders are
struggling to meet their obligations.

Initial Jobless Claims SURGE to 472,000 -- The number: And the
number is out at 472,000, which is way too high for comfort. That's a
12,000 sequential hike, and about 22K ahead of expectations. If this
number really starts creeping towards 500K again, watch out.

Hidden Menace in the Gulf of Mexico -- The Gulf of Mexico spill is
vastly larger than the Exxon Valdez accident in 1989, but where is all
the oil? While efforts to protect coastlines have been making the
headlines, the real ecological catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico is
unfolding deep beneath the water's surface.

Heads on a Plane! -- A Southwest Airlines employee called police
after finding human heads in a package set to be transported to a Fort
Worth medical research company, the airline said.

Iran to Retaliate if Planes, Ships Inspected -- Iran's Majlis
(Parliament) Speaker Ali Larijani warned the West and certain countries
with retaliation if they try to inspect Iranian planes and ships
following last week's UN Security Council sanctions resolution against
Tehran, the English language satellite Press TV reported on Wednesday.

Today In History Thursday June
17, 2010
1799 - Napoleon Bonaparte incorporated Italy into his empire.
1837 - Charles Goodyear received his first patent. The patent was for a
process that made rubber easier to work with.
1854 - The Red Turban revolt broke out in Guangdong, China.
1856 - The Republican Party opened its first national convention in
Philadelphia.
1861 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln witnessed Dr. Thaddeus Lowe
demonstrate the use of a hydrogen balloon.
1872 - George M. Hoover began selling whiskey in Dodge City, Kansas. The
town had been dry up until this point.
1876 - General George Crook’s command was attacked and bested on the
Rosebud River by 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne under the leadership of Crazy
Horse.
1879 - Thomas Edison received an honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy
from the trustees of Rutgers College in New Brunswick, NJ.
1885 - The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City aboard the French
ship Isere.
1913 - U.S. Marines set sail from San Diego to protect American
interests in Mexico.
1917 - The Russian Duma met in a secret session in Petrograd and voted
for an immediate Russian offensive against the German Army.
1926 - Spain threatened to quit the League of Nations if Germany was
allowed to join.
1928 - Amelia Earhart began the flight that made her the first woman to
successfully fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
1930 - The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill became law. It placed the highest
tariff on imports to the U.S.
1931 - British authorities in China arrested Indochinese Communist
leader Ho Chi Minh.
1932 - The U.S. Senate defeated the bonus bill as 10,000 veterans massed
around the Capitol.
1940 - The Soviet Union occupied Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
1940 - France asked Germany for terms of surrender in World War II.
1941 - WNBT-TV in New York City, NY, was granted the first construction
permit to operate a commercial TV station in the U.S.
1942 - Yank, a weekly magazine for the U.S. armed services, began
publication. The term "G.I. Joe" was first used in a comic strip by Dave
Breger.
1944 - French troops landed on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
1944 - The republic of Iceland was established.
1950 - Dr. Richard H. Lawler performed the first kidney transplant in a
45-minute operation in Chicago, IL.
1953 - Soviet tanks fought thousands of Berlin workers that were rioting
against the East German government.
1963 - The U.S. Supreme Court banned the required reading of the Lord's
prayer and Bible in public schools.
1965 - Twenty-seven B-52’s hit Viet Cong outposts but lost two planes in
South Vietnam.
1970 - North Vietnamese troops cut the last operating rail line in
Cambodia.
1972 - Five men were arrested for burglarizing the Democratic Party
Headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, DC. The men all
worked for the reelection of President
Nixon. The event was the beginning of the Watergate affair.
1981 - In Cairo, Egypt, riots between Muslim and Coptic Christians
result in the deaths of 17 people.
1987 - American journalist Charles Glass was kidnapped. He was held
captive for 62 days until he escaped on August 18, 1987.
1991 - The Parliament of South Africa repealed the Population
Registration Act. The act had required that all South Africans for
classified by race at birth.
1994 - O.J. Simpson drove his Ford Bronco across Los Angeles with police
in pursuit and millions of people watching live on television. After the
slow speed chase ended Simpson was arrested and charged with the murders
of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

The Nuclear
Option: It may happen now by Gary Vey -- It's so surreal... like a
sci-fi movie. The earth is threatened by a huge hole in its crust,
leaking crude oil like a highly pressurized volcano and threatening to
kill all life in the oceans. The solution?

NOAA Expands Fishing Closed Area in Gulf of Mexico -- NOAA has
expanded the closed fishing area in the Gulf of Mexico to capture
portions of the oil slick moving beyond the area’s current northern
boundary, off the Florida panhandle’s federal-state waterline. This
boundary was moved to Panama City Beach. This federal closure does not
apply to any state waters. Closing fishing in these areas is a
precautionary measure to ensure that seafood from the Gulf will remain
safe for consumers.

Internet 'kill switch' proposed for US -- A new US Senate Bill would
grant the President far-reaching emergency powers to seize control of,
or even shut down, portions of the internet. Read Much More...

Huge Number of Disaster Drills Held Throughout America -- America is
on high alert. Over the past several weeks to the present, more than 35
major disaster drills are taking place throughout America. It makes one
wonder what's prompting all of these emergency exercises and planning
venues. Was it confusion over Gov. Palin's oft-quoted "drill, baby,
drill?" No, it's recognition that the Feds are leaving ordinary citizens
to fend for themselves. States aren't happy about this.

Gulf Crisis Implodes Presidency -- Flanked above his left shoulder
by what looked like a pair of turkey legs dressed in a red-striped
diaper, the President of the United States spent twenty minutes Tuesday
night capitulating in a fight that he refuses to win.

State Dept Wants Own 'Combat Force' for Iraq -- Tenuous though it
may be, the Obama Administration maintains that it still intends to
complete the Iraq military pullout by the end of December 2011. Even
that won’t be the end of combat operations, however.

Fed Dodges Bullet as House Drops Audit Idea -- The Federal Reserve
scored a political victory on Wednesday as Democrats mulling financial
reform backed off measures that would expose monetary policy to audits
and make the head of the New York Fed a political appointee.

Housing Starts Plummet in May -- Total housing starts were at 593
thousand (SAAR) in May, down 10% from the revised April rate of 659,000
(revised down from 672 thousand), and up 24% from the all time record
low in April 2009 of 477 thousand (the lowest level since the Census
Bureau began tracking housing starts in 1959).

The Fed's Purchase of US Sovereign Debt -- Were it not for the
Federal Reserves purchase of Treasury and Agency bonds the US would
already be unable to raise funds to service debt and issue new debt, and
it would already have descended into national bankruptcy. It is no
wonder the Fed does not want to be audited.

In Ocotillo, the Shaking Has Been 'Nonstop' -- The 300 or so people
who live in Ocotillo, Calif., had been on edge ever since a magnitude
7.2 earthquake struck Easter Sunday just across the Mexico border,
causing minor damage in the tiny desert town.

BP Hires Mercs to Block Oily Beaches -- Last week, we all voted here
on who should buy Blackwater now that it’s up for sale. In addition to
Steve Jobs and the Salvation Army, one of the top finalists was British
Petroleum. “Somebody is gonna have to keep all those sunbathers away
from the beach,” one commenter noted.

Today In History Wednesday June
16, 2010
1890 - The second Madison Square Gardens opened.
1897 - The U.S. government signed a treaty of annexation with Hawaii.
1903 - Ford Motor Company was incorporated.
1909 - Glenn Hammond Curtiss sold his first airplane, the "Gold Bug" to
the New York Aeronautical Society for $5,000.
1910 - The first Father's Day was celebrated in Spokane, Washington.
1922 - Henry Berliner accomplished the first helicopter flight at
College Park, MD.
1925 - France accepted a German proposal for a security pact.
1940 - Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain became the prime minister of the
Vichy government of occupied France.
1941 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the closure of all
German consulates in the United States. The deadline was set as July 10.
1952 - "Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl" was published in the United
States.
1952 - A Swedish rescue plane was shot down by Soviet fighters over
Swedish territorial waters. The rescue plane was searching for a lost
aircraft.
1955 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted to extend Selective
Service until 1959.
1955 - Argentine naval officers launched an attack on President Juan
Peron's headquarters. The revolt was suppressed by the army.
1958 - Hungarian prime minister Imre Nagy was hanged for treason. He was
the prime minister during the 1956 uprising that was crushed by Soviet
tanks.
1961 - Rudolf Nureyev defected from the Soviet Union while in Paris,
traveling with the Leningrad Kirov Ballet.
1963 - 26-year-old Valentina Tereshkova went into orbit aboard the
Vostok 6 spacecraft for three days. She was the first female space
traveler.
1975 - The Simonstown agreement on naval cooperation between Britain and
South Africa ended. The agreement ended by mutual agreement after 169
years.
1977 - Leonid Brezhnev was named the first Soviet president of the USSR.
He was the first person to hold the post of president and Communist
Party General Secretary. He replaced Nikolai Podgorny.
1978 - U.S. President Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos
ratified the Panama Canal treaties.
1981 - The "Chicago Tribune" purchased the Chicago Cubs baseball team
from the P.K. Wrigley Chewing Gum Company for $20.5 million.
1987 - A jury in New York acquitted Bernhard Goetz of attempted murder
in the subway shooting of four young blacks he said were going to rob
him. He was convicted of illegal possession of a weapon. Also, in 1996 a
civil jury ordered Goetz to pay $43 million to one of the people he
shot.
1992 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush welcomed Russian President Boris
Yeltsin to a meeting in Washington, DC. The two agreed in principle to
reduce strategic weapon arsenals by about two-thirds by the year 2003.
1993 - The U.S. Postal Service released a set of seven stamps that
featured Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Clyde McPhatter, Otis Redding, Ritchie
Valens, Dinah Washington and Elvis Presley.
1996 - Russian voters had their first independent presidential election.
Boris Yeltsin was the winner after a run-off.
2000 - U.S. federal regulators approved the merger of Bell Atlantic and
GTE Corp. The merger created the nation's largest local phone company.
2000 - U.S. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson reported that an
employee at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico had
discovered that two computer hard drives were missing.
2008 - California began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Johnson & Johnson Unit Recalls Additional Over-the-Counter Drugs --
The Johnson & Johnson unit whose recall of liquid children’s Tylenol and
other pediatric medicines is under Congressional investigation said on
Tuesday evening that it was recalling additional over-the-counter drugs.
McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the Johnson & Johnson unit, said that it was
recalling four lots of certain Benadryl allergy tablets and one lot of
Extra Strength Tylenol gel pills. McNeil did not respond to a reporter’s
query about how many bottles those lots amounted to.

Soros: European recession next year almost inevitable -- Europe
faces almost inevitable recession next year and years of stagnation as
policymakers' response to the euro zone crisis causes a downward spiral,
billionaire investor George Soros said on Tuesday. Flaws built into the
euro from the start had become acute, Soros told a seminar, warning that
the euro crisis could have the potential to destroy the 27-nation
European Union.
Comment: Something is happening in the media, where Soros is getting all
this positive face time. Be cautious of this around election time.

Analysis: Old scars emerge as U.S. and Europe part economic ways --
Mindful of the Great Depression, U.S. policymakers insist economic
recovery is a prerequisite for repairing public finances. European
leaders fearful of runaway inflation argue fiscal restraint is required
for restoring the confidence that is necessary for growth. "This very
moment is not the time to radically reduce our spending or raise our
taxes because the economy is still in recovery mode and needs that
support," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said last week.

Russia to Buy Canadian, Aussie Dollars for First Time -- Russia may
add the Australian and Canadian dollars to its international reserves
for the first time after fluctuations in the U.S. dollar and euro.
“Adding the Australian dollar is being discussed,” Alexei Ulyukayev, the
central bank’s first deputy chairman, said in an interview at an event
hosted by Bloomberg in Moscow last night. “There are pros and cons. We
have added the Canadian dollar but haven’t yet begun operations” with
the currency.

What's Wrong With The Sun? -- SUNSPOTS come and go, but recently
they have mostly gone. For centuries, astronomers have recorded when
these dark blemishes on the solar surface emerge, only for them to fade
away again after a few days, weeks or months.

Bilderberg 2010: What We Have Learned -- Weary and
bramble-scratched, elated by the press coverage, and sick of riot vans
and lukewarm Spanish omelette baguettes, we return from Bilderberg 2010
with the following thoughts uppermost in our tired mind:

Copyright Bill Could Digitally Lock Us All -- Do you see what I see
in the new copyright Bill C-32? Amid all the noise about new rights for
users, upon closer scrutiny, this bill, rather than granting new rights,
can effectively block users from making use of any and all of their
rights, even existing ones.

Volcker Warns: We Are Running Out of Time -- America is running out
of time to fix its huge economic and fiscal problems, warns former Fed
chair Paul Volcker, who now heads a financial advisory board to
President Obama.

Earthquake, Aftershocks Rumble Across Southern California -- A
magnitude-5.7 earthquake shook the U.S.-Mexico border area Monday night,
the largest of dozens of quakes that rattled Southern California and
briefly halted a San Diego Padres game, according to reports. No major
damage was reported.

Oil Spill Poses Risk to Gulf Power Plants -- Even before the big
Deepwater Horizon spill, an oil boom stretched across the intake canal
at the Anclote power plant near Holiday, Florida, just east of the Gulf
of Mexico.

'Ominous' Pre-Katrina Conditions Now in Atlantic -- It's already
been forecast to be "extremely active," but the 2010 Atlantic hurricane
season may be shaping up to be something even worse: a replay of 2005,
the most active and destructive Atlantic basin hurricane season in
history.

Today In History Tuesday June
15, 2010
1775 - George Washington was appointed head of the Continental Army by
the Second Continental Congress.
1836 - Arkansas became the 25th U.S. state.
1844 - Charles Goodyear was granted a patent for the process that
strengthens rubber.
1846 - The United States and Britain settled a boundary dispute
concerning the boundary between the U.S. and Canada, by signing a
treaty.
1864 - An order to establish a military burial ground was signed by
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. The location later became known as
Arlington National Cemetery.
1877 - Henry O. Flipper became the first African American to graduate
from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
1898 - The U.S. House of representatives approved the annexation of
Hawaii.
1909 - Benjamin Shibe patented the cork center baseball.
1911 - The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. was incorporated in the
state of New York. The company was later renamed International Business
Machines (IBM) Corp.
1916 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill incorporating the Boy
Scouts of America.
1932 - Gaston Means was sentenced to 15 years for fraud in the Lindbergh
baby kidnapping.
1944 - American forces began their successful invasion of Saipan during
World War II.
1958 - Greece severed military ties to Turkey because of the Cypress
issue.
1964 - The last French troops left Algeria.
1978 - King Hussein of Jordan married 26-year-old American Lisa Halaby,
who became Queen Noor.
1981 - The U.S. agreed to provide Pakistan with $3 billion in military
and economic aid from October 1982 to October 1987.
1983 - The U.S. Supreme Court reinforced its position on abortion by
striking down state and local restriction on abortions.
1992 - It was ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court that the government could
kidnap criminal suspects from foreign countries for prosecution.
1992 - U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle instructed a student to spell
"potato" with an "e" on the end during a spelling bee.
1996 - The Irish Republican Army set of a truck bomb in a retail
district in Manchester England. The explosion wounded more than 200
people.
1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state prison inmates are
protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
1999 - South Korean naval forces sank a North Korean torpedo boat during
an exchange in the disputed Yellow Sea.
2006 - The U.S. Supreme Court said that judges cannot throw out evidence
collected by police who have search warrants but do not properly
announced their arrival.

Obama ordering art classes, bingo, and fresh veggies for detained
illegal aliens -- The Houston Chronicle has reported the details of
an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement email, that though seem
laughable, have been confirmed by an ICE official. The email lists
changes which have been ordered at several immigration detainment
centers…changes that will make the facilities seem more like
extended-stay hotels than jails. Read more...

Russian,
Japanese warships due in San Francisco next week -- Four foreign
warships are expected to sail into San Francisco Bay on the same day
later this month. In a rare visit to the city, the Russian guided
missile cruiser Varyag is due to arrive June 20 for a five-day stay in
San Francisco. Hmmmm????

Ron Paul Editorial: Authoritarianism Is Bad for Your Health -- Polls
show that a large majority of Americans don't want Obamacare. Congress
should seize the opportunity to repeal the very worst aspect of this new
legislation, namely the mandate that forces every American either to
purchase health insurance or face an IRS penalty. This mandate
represents nothing more than an unconstitutional, historically
unprecedented gift to the insurance industry. I introduced the "End the
Mandate Act" (HR 4995) expressly to prevent the administration from ever
putting this provision into effect.

Stocks Party Like Its 2009, but Soros Sees Ghosts of the 30s --
While the banking system was stabilized by massive bailouts starting in
2008 and continuing today, the next phase of the crisis began when "the
financial markets started losing confidence in the credibility of
sovereign debt," Soros declared in a speech in Vienna. "Greece and the
euro have taken center stage, but the effects are liable to be felt
worldwide." Moreover, "we find ourselves in a situation eerily
reminiscent of the 1930s," Soros declared. "Keynes has taught us budget
deficits are essential for counter-cyclical policies, yet many
governments have to reduce them under pressure from financial markets.
This is liable to push the global economy into a double-dip."
Comment: A globalist is admitting that a financial hell is awaiting us,
while defending Keynesian economics.

Congressman
Attacks Student -- Last week I reported on the crude reception that
Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN) gave students who were protesting against
high spending in Congress. Apparently, just two blocks away on that very
same day, things really got out of hand.

Big 401(k) Mistakes That Hurt Savings -- Despite persistent guidance
not to do so, an increasing number of employees are pulling money out of
their retirement accounts. During 2009, 7.1% of participants withdrew
from their retirement plans, the highest level since 2002. More than a
quarter of employees had a loan outstanding at the end of 2009. "A
concern we have with our younger generation is the likelihood of them
cashing out," Hess says. "We are spenders by nature, not savers and
often the focus is on near-term wants versus long term needs."
Comment: No, the younger people see the writing on the wall with the
stock market! (Thanks Jimm)

One Ton Tarball -- One of two one-ton masses of tarball material
recovered south of Perdido Pass, Fla., by the crew of the lift boat
Sailfish, a Vessel of Opportunity working in the largest oil spill
response in U.S. history, on Saturday, June 11, 2010. Photo by Petty
Officer 3rd Class John Walker, USCG.

Is
The White House for Sale? -- Obviously this is an error but..."As we
looked through the latest properties to hit the market this weekend, we
came across a rather famous address that is apparently now for sale:
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW -- aka The White House." Aside from the
price per square foot calculation, the thing that we like best about the
listing is that it is for sale by owner.

US Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan -- The United
States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in
Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to
fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war
itself, according to senior American government officials.

CFS Fighting Monsanto in the Supreme Court! -- On Tuesday April 27,
2010 the United States Supreme Court heard argument in the Center for
Food Safety’s case against Monsanto (Monsanto v Geertson Seed Farms),
the first-ever Supreme Court case about genetically engineered crops.

World Cup Organiser Mulls Vuvuzela Ban -- World Cup organising
committee head Danny Jordaan on Sunday did not rule out banning
vuvuzelas, the noisy plastic trumpets which have proved a hit with fans
in South Africa but threaten to deafen players and viewers alike.

President
to Push for Energy Bill During Oval Address -- Good Monday morning.
Although it won’t be his main point, President Obama plans to use his
Oval Office address Tuesday night, the first of his presidency, to argue
for a comprehensive new energy-climate law that goes beyond “spill bill”
provisions designed to rein in the oil industry.

Huge
Number of Disasters Drills Held Throughout America -- From terrorist
attacks and hurricane evacuations to submarine base and nuclear power
plant mishaps; bomb blasts, plane crashes, dirty bombs, hazmat spills,
earthquakes, medical disasters and train derailments, America is on high
alert. Over the past several weeks to the present, more than 35 major
disaster drills are taking place throughout America.

Today In History Monday June
14, 20101775 - The Continental
Army was founded by the Second Continental Congress for purposes of
common defense.
1777 - The Continental Congress in Philadelphia adopted the "Stars and
Stripes" as the national flag of the United States.
1834 - Cyrus Hall McCormick received a patent for his reaping machine.
1834 - Isaac Fischer Jr. patented sandpaper.
1864 - Alois Alzheimer was born. He was a psychiatrist/pathologist, and
in 1907 he wrote an article describing the disease that is named for
him.
1893 - Philadelphia observed the first Flag Day.
1900 - Hawaii became a U.S. territory.
1927 - Nicaraguan President Adolfo Diaz signed a treaty with the U.S.
allowing American intervention in his country.
1932 - U.S. Representative Edward Eslick died on the floor of the House
of Representatives while pleading for the passage of the bonus bill.
1940 - The Nazis opened their concentration camp at Auschwitz in
German-occupied Poland.
1940 - German troops entered Paris. As Paris became occupied loud
speakers announced the implementation of a curfew being imposed for 8
p.m.
1944 - Sixty U.S. B-29 Superfortress' attacked an iron and steel works
factory on Honshu Island. It was the first U.S. raid against mainland
Japan.
1945 - Burma was liberated by Britain.
1949 - The state of Vietnam was formed.
1952 - The Nautilus was dedicated. It was the first nuclear powered
submarine.
1954 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an order adding the
words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance.
1954 - Americans took part in the first nation-wide civil defense test
against atomic attack.
1965 - A military triumvirate took control in Saigon, South Vietnam.
1967 - Mariner 5 was launched from Cape Kennedy, FL. The space probe's
flight took it past Venus.
1985 - The 17-day hijacking of TWA flight 847 began. The hijackers were
Lebanese Shiite Muslim extremists.
1990 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld police checkpoints that are used to
examine drivers for signs of intoxication.
1994 - The New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup by defeating the
Vancouver Canucks. It was the first time the Rangers had won the cup in
54 years.
1996 - The FBI released that the White House had done bureau background
reports on at leat 408 people without justification.
2002 - Twelve people were killed and 50 were injured when a car bomb was
used to attack the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan.

Wisconsin tea party movement flexes muscles with unpredictability --
While its thousands of activists lean heavily Republican, many distrust
career politicians of both parties and pledge to hold elected officials
of all stripes accountable after November's balloting. New groups are
popping up every week, ranging from family-run organizations that would
loosen gun controls to broader-based organizations pushing fiscal
conservatism, transparency in government and allegiance to
constitutional principles. Last fall, following congressional town hall
meetings packed by those protesting health care reform, about 24 local
groups attended the first meeting of the Coalition of Wisconsin Patriot
Groups.

Oil Spill 'Could
Go Years' If Not Dealt With -- The Obama Administration and senior
BP officials are frantically working not to stop the world’s worst oil
disaster, but to hide the true extent of the actual ecological
catastrophe.

Gold rush on but sellers beware -- From gold-selling parties to
billboards to radio ads, more businesses have popped up alongside
established jewelers, all seeking your gold. The growth is so rapid the
City of Milwaukee has proposed a four-month moratorium on new licenses
for gold-buying businesses in order to regulate the industry.

Worst Locust Plague in Two Decades Threatens Australian Harvest --
The worst locust plague in more than two decades is threatening to
strike Australia, the world’s fourth-largest wheat exporter, after
rainfall boosted egg-laying by the insects in major crop growing
regions. “There are hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crops and
pastures that are potentially at risk,” Chris Adriaansen, director at
the Canberra-based Australian Plague Locust Commission said in an
interview by phone. “Tens of millions of dollars” will be spent during
the southern hemisphere spring to reduce the affects of the infestation,
he said.

Seven State Pension Plans Out of Money by 2020 -- Seven states will
run out of money to pay public pensions by 2020. That hasn’t stopped
them from hiring new employees. The seven are Illinois, Connecticut,
Indiana, New Jersey, Hawaii, Louisiana and Oklahoma, according to Joshua
D. Rauh of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Combined, they added 9,700 workers to both state and local government
payrolls between December 2007 and April of this year, says the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Ghost Town Detroit -- Detroit was, in its heyday just after World
War II, when the US auto industry was literally firing on all cylinders,
the fourth largest in the U.S., Its population was 1.85 million in 1950.
Today, fewer than half that number reside in the city.

Piece of Deepwater Horizon Washes Ashore on PCB -- Bay County's
first tangible landfall from the Deepwater Horizon crisis is not tar
balls or oil plumes. Instead, it’s a storage tank officials think was
onboard the Deepwater Horizon rig when it exploded and sank off the
coast of Louisiana in April.

Coast Guard to BP: Speed It Up, Stop the Spill -- The Coast Guard
has demanded that BP step up its efforts to contain the oil gushing into
the Gulf of Mexico by the end of the weekend, telling the British oil
giant that its slow pace in stopping the spill is becoming increasingly
alarming as the disaster fouled the coastline in ugly new ways Saturday.

Oil Spill in Red Butte Creek Threaten Waters, Wildlife --
Containment of a crude oil spill estimated at around 20,000 gallons into
Red Butte Creek is expected to last well into the night and continue
through Sunday as multiple agencies work to mitigate impacts to the
stream and wildlife.

EPA Takes a Giant Leap into Tyranny -- Yesterday, the EPA won a
victory over the American people and took a giant leap toward tyranny,
in a Senate vote 47- 53 against blocking action by the corrupt EPA.

BP Chose Riskier, Cheaper Casing for Well -- BP Plc installed a type
of cement casing on its now-ruptured undersea well that it knew ran the
risk of leaking gases in order to save money, The New York Times
reported on Wednesday, citing a BP document it received from a
congressional investigator.

The Death of Las Vegas -- There are quite a few U.S. cities that are
complete and utter economic disaster zones in 2010 (Detroit for
example), but there is something about the demise of Las Vegas that is
absolutely stunning.

Today In History Friday June
11, 2010
1776 - In America, the Continental Congress formed a committee to draft
a Declaration of Independence from Britain.
1880 - Jeanette Rankin was born. She became the first woman elected to
the U.S. Congress.
1889 - The Washington Business High School opened in Washington, DC. It
was the first school devoted to business in the U.S.
1895 - Charles E. Duryea received the first U.S. patent granted to an
American inventor for a gasoline-driven automobile.
1912 - Silas Christoferson became the first pilot to take off from the
roof of a hotel.
1915 - British troops took Cameroon in Africa.
1919 - Sir Barton became the first horse to capture the Triple Crown
when he won the Belmont Stakes in New York City.
1927 - Charles A. Lindberg was presented the first Distinguished Flying
Cross.
1936 - The Presbyterian Church of America was formed in Philadelphia,
PA.
1937 - Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a purge of Red Army generals.
1940 - The Italian Air Force bombed the British fortress at Malta in the
Mediterranean.
1942 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union signed a lend lease agreement to
aid the Soviets in their effort in World War II.
1943 - During World War II, the Italian island of Pantelleria
surrendered after a heavy air bombardment.
1947 - The U.S. government announced an end to sugar rationing.
1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested in Florida for trying to
integrate restaurants.
1963 - Buddhist monk Quang Duc immolated himself on a Saigon street to
protest the government of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.
1963 - Alabama Gov. George Wallace allowed two black students to enroll
at the University of Alabama.
1967 - Israel and Syria accepted a U.N. cease-fire.
1977 - In the Netherlands, a 19-day hostage situation came to an end
when Dutch marines stormed a train and a school being held by
South Moluccan extremist. Two hostages and the six terrorists were
killed.
1981 - The first major league baseball player's strike began. It would
last for two months.
1982 - Steven Spielberg's movie "E.T." opened.
1985 - Karen Ann Quinlan died at age 31. Quinlan was a comatose patient
whose case prompted a historic right-to-die court decision.
1987 - Margaret Thatcher became the first British prime minister in 160
years to win a third consecutive term of office.
1990 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a law that would prohibit the
desecration of the American Flag.
1991 - Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted. The eruption of ash
and gas could be seen for more than 60 miles.
1993 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people who commit "hate crimes"
could be sentenced to extra punishment. The court also ruled in favor of
religious groups saying that they indeed had a constitutional right to
sacrifice animals during worship services.
1994 - A car bomb blew up in Guadalajara, Mexico killing five people.
The bombing was believed to be drug related.
1998 - Mitsubishi of America agreed to pay $34 million to end the
largest sexual harassment case filed by the U.S. government. The
federal lawsuit claimed that hundreds of women at a plant in Normal, IL,
had endured groping and crude jokes from male workers.
1998 - Pakistan announced moratorium on nuclear testing and offered to
talk with India over disputed Kashmir.
2001 - Timothy McVeigh was executed by the U.S. federal government for
his role in the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City.

Guard Readies as Gulf Braces for Oil Spill -- April 30, 2010 – At
least three states along the Gulf of Mexico are preparing for a
potential call for thousands of National Guard members as the nation
ramps up its response to an oil spill that’s threatening the coast. Read
More...

Farmer fires home-made cannon to defend land -- A Chinese farmer has
declared war on property developers who want his land, building a cannon
out of a wheelbarrow and pipes and firing rockets at would-be eviction
teams, state media said on Tuesday. Yang Youde, who lives on the
outskirts of bustling Wuhan city, in central Hubei province, says he has
fended off two eviction attempts with his improvised weapon, which uses
ammunition made from locally sold fireworks.

NYPD Can Keep Surveillance Documents on Protesters Secret, Court Rules
-- A federal appeals court has dealt a blow to a civil-liberties lawsuit
against the New York Police Department, saying the police force is
within its rights to keep secret some 1,800 pages of documents about its
surveillance of protesters ahead of the Republican National Convention
in 2004

France selling 1,700 buildings to help cut debt -- Fancy setting up
house in a French government ministry? Or retiring to a royal hunting
lodge? Line up now for a supersize sale of 1,700 properties by the
French state, seeking to shed dilapidated, expensive-to-maintain
buildings and chip away at the country's record-high debt.

Nouriel Roubini on Financial Downsizing -- Roubini makes the case
for substantially breaking up the financial system as presently
concentrated. I fully support just that. In fact it is a concept that
needs to be applied throughout the global economy.

Most Foreclosures Have Positive Equity -- Of all of the foreclosures
in the RealtyTrac online database, less than 50% have mortgages worth
less than what is owed, said Rick Sharga, senior vice president at
RealtyTrac, during a session at REO Expo, which concludes in Dallas
Wednesday….

Bernake Warns Congress Not to Cut Spending, Cautions About Fragile
Recovery -- While the conventional wisdom in Washington appears to
focus largely on the need to lower the federal government's budget
deficit, rather than on reducing the nation's nearly 10 percent
unemployment rate, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sent a message
Wednesday to lawmakers: Now's not the time.

USNORTHCOM Gears Up for Potential Attack On US Soil -- USNORTHCOM
admits that they are preparing military operations within the United
States. This is the first time in history this has been done. They will
be working with DHS, state and local law enforcement on U.S. soil.

Climate Change Showdown -- Democratic leaders are scrambling to
prevent the Senate from delivering a stinging slap to President Barack
Obama on climate change.

Gulf Oil Spill 'May Top 100,000 Barrels a Day' -- BP’s oil leak in
the Gulf of Mexico may be up to four times the scale estimated by a
government scientific panel, pumping out 100,000 barrels a day in what
equates to the company’s “worst case scenario” and prompting new
accusations that executives are stonewalling the truth.

Taliban Using HIV Bombs -- TALIBAN fighters are burying dirty
needles with their bombs in a bid to infect British troops with HIV, The
Sun can reveal.

Today In History Thursday June
10, 2010
1776 - The Continental Congress appointed a committee to write a
Declaration of Independence.
1854 - The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, held its first
graduation.
1898 - U.S. Marines landed in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.
1909 - The SOS distress signal was used for the first time. The Cunard
liner SS Slavonia used the signal when it wrecked off the Azores.
1920 - The Republican convention in Chicago endorsed woman suffrage.
1924 - The Republican National Convention was broadcast by NBC radio. It
was the first political convention to be on radio.
1935 - Alcoholic Anonymous was founded by William G. Wilson and Dr.
Robert Smith.
1940 - Italy declared war on France and Britain. In addition, Canada
declared war on Italy.
1942 - The Gestapo massacred 173 male residents of Lidice,
Czechoslovakia, in retaliation for the killing of a Nazi official.
1943 - Laszlo Biro patented his ballpoint pen. Biro was a Hungarian
journalist.
1943 - The Allies began bombing Germany around the clock.
1946 - Italy established a republic replacing its monarchy.
1948 - Chuck Yeager exceeded the speed of sound in the Bell XS-1.
1967 - Israel and Syria agreed to a cease-fire that ended the Six-Day
War.
1970 - A fifteen-man group of special forces troops began training for
Operation Kingpin. The operation was a POW rescue mission in North
Vietnam.
1971 - The U.S. ended a 21-year trade embargo of China.
1977 - James Earl Ray escaped with 6 others from Brushy Mountain State
Prison in Tennessee. Ray was recaptured June 13, 1977.
1984 - The U.S. Army successfully tested an antiballistic missile.
1985 - The Israeli army pulled out of Lebanon after 1,099 days of
occupation.
1987 - An earthquake hit 15 states from Iowa to South Carolina.
1990 - Bulgaria's former Communist Party won the country's first free
elections in more than four decades.
1994 - U.S. President Clinton intensified sanctions against Haiti's
military leaders. U.S. commercial air travel was suspended along with
most financial transactions between Haiti and the U.S.
1996 - Britain and Ireland opened Northern Ireland peace talks. The
IRA's political arm Sinn Fein was excluded.
1997 - Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot killed his defense chief Son Sen and
11 members of his family. He then fled his northern stronghold.
1998 - The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that poor children in Milwaukee
could attend religious schools at taxpayer expense.
1999 - NATO suspended air strikes in Yugoslavia after Slobodan Milosevic
agreed to withdraw his forces from Kosovo.

FDA warns Pfizer for not reporting side effects -- The U.S. Food and
Drug Administration has warned Pfizer Inc for failing to quickly report
serious and unexpected potential side effects from its drugs already on
the market. In a 12-page warning letter to Pfizer Chief Executive
Jeffrey Kindler, the FDA cited numerous examples involving some of the
company's top-known brands, including impotence drug Viagra, cholesterol
pill Lipitor and seizure medicine Lyrica.

Des Moines named best U.S. city to raise a family -- If you are
looking for the best city to raise a family in the United States, head
to Des Moines in Iowa. That Midwestern metropolitan area was named the
best city for families by Forbes.com because of its good schools,
reasonable housing, short commuting times and sense of community.

Why no price is too high for gold -- The gold price has more than
quadrupled during the last ten years. So is it too late to buy the
stuff? My short answer is, "No." Admittedly, gold is not like any other
investment. It is not merely a financial asset; it is the ultimate form
of money. But that doesn't mean it is always a good investment. Many
investors make a case for gold laden with ideological fury over the
government's printing press. These investors are always saying buy gold.
Their arguments are timeless, but not always timely.

Banks Face Short-Sale Fraud as Home 'Flopping' Schemes Spread -- Two
Connecticut real estate agents found a way to profit in the U.S. housing
bust: Buy low, sell fast. Their tactic was also illegal. Sergio Natera
and Anna McElaney are scheduled to be sentenced in Hartford’s federal
court in August after pleading guilty to fraud. Their crime involved
persuading lenders to approve the sale of homes for less than the
balance owed -- known as a short sale -- without disclosing that there
were better offers. They then flipped the houses for a profit.

Going to Jail for Credit Card Debts -- People are routinely being
thrown in jail for failing to pay debts. In Minnesota, which has some of
the most creditor-friendly laws in the country, the use of arrest
warrants against debtors has jumped 60 percent over the past four years,
with 845 cases in 2009, a Star Tribune analysis of state court data has
found.

Watch Out For Foreclosure Rescue Scams -- As usual, if a rescue plan
sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Of course, I'd be a little
skeptical about the "Keep paying your mortgage and listen to your
lender" advice. That one doesn't always work out either. In the end,
every situation is different and it's important to "Know when to hold,
and when to fold". "Saving" your home isn't as critical as saving your
personal finances. Doing your own research is critical. Don't gamble
with your family's future. (Video included)

Britain's Unofficial One Child Policy -- Yvette Garside wanted to
take her children for a swim. But pool attendants in Bolton insisted
that Ryan and Jordanna, aged five and two respectively, each had to be
accompanied by an adult.

New Health Law Could Ban Low-Cost Plans -- Part of the health care
overhaul due to kick in this September could strip more than 1 million
people of their insurance coverage, violating a key goal of President
Barack Obama’s reforms.

New Comet Visible in Early Morning Sky -- A recently discovered
comet is surprising skywatchers by becoming brighter than predictions
had first suggested and can now be seen with the unaided eye during the
next few weeks.

Two Tech Chiefs Triumph -- Republican voters in California sent two
former Silicon Valley chief executives, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina,
into the races for governor and U.S. Senate against establishment
Democrats.

Today In History Wednesday June
9, 2010
1534 - Jacques Cartier became the first to sail into the river he named
Saint Lawrence.
1790 - John Barry copyrighted "Philadelphia Spelling Book." It was the
first American book to be copyrighted.
1923 - Bulgaria’s government was overthrown by the military.
1931 - Robert H. Goddard patented a rocket-fueled aircraft design.
1934 - Donald Duck made his debut in the Silly Symphonies cartoon "The
Wise Little Hen."
1940 - Norway surrendered to the Nazis during World War II.
1943 - The withholding tax on payrolls was authorized by the U.S.
Congress.
1945 - Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki declared that Japan would fight
to the last rather than accept unconditional surrender.
1946 - Mel Ott (with the New York Giants) became the first manager to be
ejected from a doubleheader (both games).
1959 - The first ballistic missile carrying submarine, the USS George
Washington, was launched.
1972 - American advisor John Paul Vann was killed in a helicopter
accident in Vietnam.
1978 - Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints struck
down a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men from the Mormon
priesthood.
1980 - Richard Pryor was severely burned by a "free-base" mixture that
exploded. He was hospitalized more than two months.
1985 - Thomas Sutherland, an American educator, was kidnapped in
Lebanon. He was not released until November 1991.
1986 - The Rogers Commission released a report on the Challenger
disaster. The report explained that the spacecraft blew up as a
result of a failure in a solid rocket booster joint.
1998 - In Jasper, TX, three white men were charged in the dragging death
of African-American James Byrd Jr.
1999 - NATO and Yugoslavia signed a peace agreement over Kosovo.
2000 - The U.S. Justice Department announced that it had not uncovered
reliable evidence of conspiracy behind 1968 assassination of Martin
Luther King Jr.
2000 - Canada and the United States signed a border security agreement.
The agreement called for the establishment of a border-enforcement team.
2000 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal gift and estate
taxes. The bill called for the taxes to be phased out
over 10 years.

Study shows how radiation causes breast cancer -- Common sense
suggests there is plenty of reason to be worried about radiation causing
breast cancer. And now there's a new reason to be concerned. Researchers
at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
(Berkeley Lab) have discovered that radiation exposure can alter cells'
microenvironment (the environment surrounding cells). And that greatly
raises the odds future cells will become cancerous. Read More...

GM Recalls 1.53 Million Cars, Trucks for Fire Risk -- General Motors
Co. is recalling 1.53 million cars and trucks worldwide because fires
can be ignited by components that heat windshield-washer fluid. The
company will disable the heating mechanism in the washers of Buick,
Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Hummer and Saturn brands from model years 2006
to 2009, according to an e-mailed statement today. It said it will pay
owners $100 for each vehicle because the feature won't be available and
the maker of the units is out of business.

Food Safety Should Be Regulated by One U.S. Agency Says Report --
Food safety in the U.S. would improve if a single agency were
responsible for oversight of produce, poultry and meat, a report ordered
by Congress said. The Food and Drug Administration, which monitors 80
percent of the U.S. food supply, should create a single food-safety
agency and establish a formal system for evaluating which issues pose
the biggest risk to public health, the Institute of Medicine, an
independent group that is part of the National Academy of Sciences, said
today in its report. Comment: Another agency...gee, that's going to
solve everything.

File your claims! Or BP won't pay -- In response to a growing
perception that filing a claim for compensation from BP is more trouble
than it's worth, officials in Alabama announced a program Tuesday to
help workers affected by the oil spill get the money they're entitled
to. Read More...

America Today: Medicated Drivers, Toxic Foods and Counterfeit Money
Supply -- There are a great many reasons to love America. For one
thing, Freedom of Speech remains largely intact in the USA (although the
FDA has struck a serious blow to the principle with its ongoing
censorship of free speech about nutritional supplements). We also have a
diverse culture of people who are by and large friendly people.

Western Diet Promotes Depression in Women -- Women who eat a typical
Western diet high in junk food may increase their risk of suffering from
mood disorders such as depression, according to a study conducted by
researchers from the University of Melbourne and published in the
American Journal of Psychiatry.

Breast Cancer Cells Destroyed by Peach and Plum Extracts -- Even the
most aggressive types of breast cancer cells couldn't stand up to
treatments with peach and plum extracts. That's the outcome of a natural
fruit-derived treatment tested in the Texas AgriLife Research Lab which
resulted in cancer cells dying while normal cells were not harmed at
all.

BP is using stuff that is toxic to sea life -- The principal health
effects following acute exposure to 2-butoxyethanol are irritation of
the eyes and respiratory tract. The critical effect identified in
repeated dose animal studies is haematotoxicity.

Gulf Oil Spill: How BP's Dispersants May Contaminate Seafood for Years
-- Oil Dispersants Will Contaminate Seafood and crops for years -- "Not
only will the oil, benzene, and Corexit contaminate seafood, but
eventually all the crops on land. Will farmers not be able to sell their
crops due to very high benzene levels? I wonder if the government will
try to ignore all the poison crops. I won't be surprised to hear next
that BP bought a huge amount of Corexit just before the oil leak."
Thanks sgam!!

Photo gallery: Ripple effects of the BP oil spill -- Clean-up crews
are removing blobs of oil that have washed ashore in Louisiana, Alabama
and Florida. Meantime, the disaster is taking a toll on the oil-drenched
sea life and birds, especially brown pelicans.

Obama Warns Oil Spill Will Substantially Impact Economy -- President
Barack Obama Obama has met with Cabinet and other officials dealing with
the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The president says it is
clear there will be substantial ongoing economic effects from the spill.

Today In History Tuesday June
8, 2010
1861 - Tennessee voted to secede from the Union and joined the
Confederacy.
1869 - Ives W. McGaffey received a U.S. patent for the suction vacuum
cleaner.
1872 - The penny postcard was authorized by the U.S. Congress.
1904 - U.S. Marines landed in Tangiers, Morocco, to protect U.S.
citizens.
1915 - U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigned in a
disagreement over U.S. handling of the sinking of the Lusitania.
1947 - "Lassie" debuted on ABC radio. It was a 15-minute show.
1948 - Milton Berle hosted "Texaco Star Theater" NBC-TV. It was the
show's debut.
1953 - The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregated restaurants in
Washington, DC.
1961 - The Milwaukee Braves set a major league baseball record when four
consecutive home runs in the seventh inning.
1965 - U.S. troops in South Vietnam were given orders to begin fighting
offensively.
1967 - Israeli airplanes attacked the USS Liberty in the Mediterranean
during the 6-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
34 U.S. Navy crewmen were killed. Israel later called the incident a
tragic mistake due to the mis-identification of the ship. The U.S. has
never publicly investigated the incident.
1968 - James Earl Ray was captured at the London Airport. He was
suspected of assassinating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
1969 - U.S. President Richard Nixon met with President Thieu of South
Vietnam to tell him 25,000 U.S. troops would pull out by August.
1978 - A jury in Clark County, Nevada, ruled that the "Mormon will," was
a forgery. The work was supposedly written by Howard Hughes.
1982 - U.S. President Reagan became the first American chief executive
to address a joint session of the British Parliament.
1987 - Fawn Hill began testifying in the Iran-Contra hearings. She said
that she had helped to shred some documents.
1991 - A victory parade was held in Washington, DC, to honor veterans of
the Persian Gulf War.
1994 - The warring factions in Bosnia agreed to a one-month cease-fire.
1995 - U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Scott O'Grady was rescued by U.S.
Marines after surviving alone in Bosnia after his F-16 fighter was shot
down on June 2.
1996 - China set off an underground nuclear test blast.
1998 - The National Rifle Association elected Charlton Heston to be its
president.
1998 - Honda agreed to pay $17.1 million for disconnecting
anti-pollution devices in 1.6 million cars.
1998 - The space shuttle Discovery pulled away from Mir, ending
America's three-year partnership with Russia.
2000 - The Dallas Stars and the New Jersey Devils played the NHL's
longest scoreless game in Stanley Cup finals history. The fifth game of
the series lasted 106 minutes and 21 seconds. The game ended with a goal
by Mike Madano that allowed the Stars to play a game six back in Dallas.
2001 - In Japan, a knife-wielding man murdered eight children at an
elementary school.
2004 - Nate Olive and Sarah Jones began the first known continuous hike
of the 1,800-mile trail down the U.S. Pacific Coast. They completed the
trek at the U.S.-Mexico border on September 28.

Shallow-Water
Oil Drilling Plans Must Be Resubmitted -- The U.S. suspended
shallow-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico until oil and gas producers
resubmit plans to meet revised safety and environmental rules. The Obama
administration is “pulling back” the exploration applications and
requiring updated information for waters less than 500 feet deep to
“ensure that new safety standards and risk considerations are
incorporated,” said Bob Abbey, acting director of the Minerals
Management Service

Statement
from Jim Purcey's family - The immediate family would like to make
the following statements which are based on facts surrounding the
findings of the Coroner’s and Police investigations. For those who
haven't heard yet, on Memorial Day Monday May 31st Jim was found in his
car mortally burned after a severe fire.

Military
Support Continues on Gulf Coast -- Military support continues today
as part of an interagency response force that’s working to clean up an
oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.* Related article:
Louisiana Guard continues to push in Grand Isle -- Heavy equipment
operators from the Louisiana National Guard's 922nd Horizontal Engineer
Company, 769th Engineer Battalion, bulldoze sand to close a strait
between two peninsulas near Grand Isle, La., May 10, 2010. The closure
will be a secondary defense in addition to the boom line in the Gulf of
Mexico to prevent any oil from reaching further inland.

No
letup in Marine attempted suicides -- Eighty-nine Marines tried to
commit suicide through May, most commonly by overdose or lacerations,
according to statistics and the Marine Corps suicide prevention program
officer,Eighty-nine Marines tried to commit suicide through May, most
commonly by overdose or lacerations, according to statistics and the
Marine Corps suicide prevention program officer.

Journalist Helen Thomas Retires Amid Controversy -- Longtime
Washington journalist Helen Thomas abruptly retired Monday as a
columnist for Hearst News Service following remarks she made about
Israel that were denounced by the White House and her press corps
colleagues.* Related Article:
Helen Thomas Quits After Israel Comments -- Journalist Helen Thomas,
who has covered every administration since Eisenhower's and occupies
front-row center in the White House briefing room is taking heat for
comments she recently made on Israel.

Goldman
Subpoenaed After FCIC Says Firm Slowed Probe -- Goldman Sachs Group
Inc. was subpoenaed by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission after
panel members said the most profitable firm in Wall Street history
engaged in a document “dump” to hinder a probe. Goldman Sachs sent more
than a billion pages of documents, FCIC Vice Chairman Bill Thomas said
on a conference call with reporters today. Not all of the information is
what the panel requested, and Goldman Sachs didn’t cooperate with
requests to interview Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, Chief
Operating Officer Gary Cohn and Chief Financial Officer David Viniar,
FCIC Chairman Phil Angelides said.

Bank of America Employees Say Bank Stole $100 Million from Paychecks
-- But, by now the excitement is just too much… you just have to be
stealing and screwing someone in order to feel normal. You look around
for virgin ground… customers… no, nothing more you can do to them…
already stole most of their houses. And then it dawns on you… the
employees… you haven’t tapped the employees yet. Yeah, that’s the
ticket… how can you steal from the employees. And start at the bottom,
where they’ll be scared to even bring it up. Then move upward to the
branch managers… ooohhh… this is getting exciting, don’t you think?

European Stocks, Pound Decline on Deficit Woes; Gold at Record --
European stocks fell for the third day and the pound weakened after
Fitch Ratings said Britain’s deficit challenge is “formidable,” adding
to concerns that the region’s fiscal crisis is spreading. U.S. futures
climbed and copper and oil erased gains, while gold rose to a record.

Fifty Statistics About The U.S. Economy -- Our greed and our debt
are literally eating our economy alive. Total government, corporate and
personal debt has now reached 360 percent of GDP, which is far higher
than it ever reached during the Great Depression era. We have nearly
totally dismantled our once colossal manufacturing base, we have shipped
millions upon millions of middle class jobs overseas, we have lived far
beyond our means for decades and we have created the biggest debt bubble
in the history of the world. A great day of financial reckoning is fast
approaching, and the vast majority of Americans are totally oblivious.

"Who
Controls the Gold Market?" by Julian Phillips -- When gold price are
slammed down in one day, as they were on Friday by more than $20 it is
certain that some sort of concerted action was taken to push the price
down. Fingers point at the leading U.S. banks. But then later on Friday,
before its close, there came a huge surge in buying that took the gold
price up to $1,220 from $1,192. This pressure equaled or bettered the
downward pressures seen in that day. This bodes well this week for
pressures between these two blocs to continue or even heighten until the
gold price breaks one way or the other. It’s time to look at who is
controlling the gold market?

Corexit is Killing the Gulf -- Let us set aside the possibility of
provable intent or gross criminal negligence of governmental regulators
and oil company executives causing or allowing the worse humanly caused
catastrophe in world history.

Bilderberg
Wants Americans Disarmed and Dependent on Government -- As part of
Bilderberg’s agenda to “Europeanize” America and turn it into a
socialist welfare state wherein its citizens are completely dependent on
the government, the elite are celebrating President Obama’s support for
a UN small arms treaty, which many fear could be used to impinge on the
right to keep and bear arms.

Obama Seeking 'Ass to Kick' -- "I don't sit around just talking to
experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks
because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to
kick."

Oiled Birds Found in Texas, Battle Likely to Stretch Into Fall -- A
containment cap was capturing more and more of the crude pouring from a
damaged oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, but that bit of hope was
tempered by a sharp dose of pragmatism as the federal government's point
man warned the crisis could stretch into the fall.

1 Missing After Natural Gas Line Blast in Texas -- A large natural
gas line in north Texas erupted Monday after utility workers
accidentally hit the line, sending a massive fireball into the air and
leaving one worker missing hours after the blast, officials said.

Today In History Monday June 7, 20101775 - The United Colonies
changed their name to the United States.
1863 - Mexico City was captured by French troops.
1900 - Boxer rebels cut the rail links between Peking and Tientsin in
China.
1903 - Professor Pierre Curie revealed the discovery of Polonium.
1929 - The sovereign state of Vatican City came into existence as copies
of the Lateran Treaty were exchanged in Rome.
1932 - Over 7,000 war veterans marched on Washington, DC, demanding
their bonuses.
1935 - Pierre Laval received emergency powers to save the franc.
1939 - King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, arrived in the U.S.
It was the first visit to the U.S. by a reigning British
monarch.
1942 - The Battle of Midway ended. The sea and air battle lasted 4 days.
Japan lost four carriers, a cruiser, and 292 aircraft,
and suffered 2,500 casualties. The U.S. lost the Yorktown, the destroyer
USS Hammann, 145 aircraft, and suffered 307 casualties.
1942 - Japan landed troops on the islands of Attu and Kiska in the
Aleutians. The U.S. invaded and recaptured the Alutians one
year later.
1944 - Off of the coast of Normandy, France, the Susan B. Anthony sank.
All 2,689 people aboard survived.
1948 - The Communists completed their takeover of Czechoslovakia.
1966 - Sony Corporation unveiled its brand new consumer home videotape
recorder. The black and white only unit sold for $995.
1965 - In the U.S., the Gemini 4 mission was completed. The mission
featured the first spacewalk by an American.
1968 - In Operation Swift Saber, U.S. Marines swept an area 10 miles
northwest of Danang in South Vietnam.
1976 - "The NBC Nightly News", with John Chancellor and David Brinkley,
aired for the first time.
1981 - Israeli F-16 fighter-bombers destroyed Iraq’s only nuclear
reactor.
1994 - The United States District Court for the Eastern District of
Virginia declared the RMS Titanic, Inc. (RMST) salvor-in-
possession of the wreck and the wreck site of the RMS Titanic.
1998 - James Byrd Jr., at age 49, was murdered in Jasper, TX. Byrd had
been dragged to death behind a pickup truck. On February
25, 1999 William King was sentenced to the death penalty for the racial
crime while two other men charged awaited trial.
2000 - U.S. Federal Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ordered the breakup of
Microsoft Corporation.

Bilderberg
2010: Final List of Participants -- This is the official participant
list direct from Bilderberg. We have to remember that many participants
request that their names not be added, as we covered in 2008 when
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama attended the Bilderberg meeting in
Chantilly Virginia under a cloak of secrecy, so there are likely to be
more attendees who were not included on the list.

Many Gulf federal judges have oil links -- More than half of the
federal judges in districts where the bulk of Gulf oil spill-related
lawsuits are pending have financial connections to the oil and gas
industry, complicating the task of finding judges without conflicts to
hear the cases, an Associated Press analysis of judicial financial
disclosure reports shows.

Time for law-abiding American citizens to stop paying taxes, start a new
government? -- The evidence is now overwhelming. The United States
government has facilitated the theft of trillions of dollars of national
wealth and 99% of the US population no longer has political
representation. Now that I have your attention, I want to make it clear
to you that I am being rational and serious when I ask this question: Is
it time for law abiding American citizens to stop paying their taxes and
start a new government?

Surging costs hit food security in poorer nations -- Scraping to
afford the next meal is still a grim daily reality in the developing
world even though the global food crisis that dominated headlines in
2008 quickly faded in the U.S. and other rich countries. With food
costing up to 70 percent of family income in the poorest countries,
rising prices are squeezing household budgets and threatening to worsen
malnutrition, while inflation stays moderate in the United States and
Europe. Compounding the problem in many countries: prices hardly fell
from their peaks in 2008, when global food prices jumped in part due to
a smaller U.S. wheat harvest and demand for crops to use in biofuels.

Headwinds, still, for a tumultuous year -- No one said 2010 was
going to be an easy year in the markets and for economic growth
worldwide. And it hasn't been. The gruesome U.S. stock market
performance in May, the worst in 15 months, is the latest evidence of a
tumultuous year that started with cautious optimism for investors trying
to navigate between signs of economic recovery, crisis and policy
reforms.

Kellogg's drops Rice Krispies health claims -- The Federal Trade
Commission said the company had agreed in February 2009 to stop claiming
that its Frosted Mini Wheats were "clinically shown to improve kids'
attentiveness by nearly 20 percent." In an advertising campaign that
began in about July 2009, Kellogg began advertising on cereal boxes that
Rice Krispies "now helps support your child's immunity."

Nearly 100,000 Protest For Closure of US Military Base in Japan -- A
protest on the Japanese island of Okinawa calling for the closure of a
United States military base attracted almost 100,000 people on Sunday,
after speculations that the Japanese government may back out of an
election promise to force it off the island entirely.

US Debt Approaches Reinhart-Rogoff Line -- Research by economists
Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff suggests that once a developed
nation’s debt crosses 90% of annual economic output that annual economic
growth tends to be about one percentage point lower.

Gulf Oil Spill Breakthrough? Cap Collecting 'Majority' of Oil? -- BP
reported Sunday that its containment cap is now collecting 420,000
gallons a day, saying that was a 'majority' of the oil. But the flow
rate in the Gulf oil spill is still uncertain, and BP has failed to live
up to its optimistic predictions in the past.

White House Linked to Flotilla Organizers -- A top adviser to
President Obama is the contact person within the White House for
communications with the Free Gaza Movement over plans to challenge
Israel's blockade of the terrorist Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip,
according to a reputable source close to the Netanyahu government.

FDA Defeated in Federal Court Over Censorship of Truthful Health Claims
-- Health freedom has just been handed a significant victory by the
United States District Court for the District of Columbia, which ruled
last week that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) violated the
First Amendment rights of a nutritional supplement company when it
censored truthful, scientifically-backed claims about how selenium can
help reduce the risk of cancer.

Letting Babies Swim in Chlorinated Pools Harms Their Health For Life
-- Young children who swim in chlorinated pools may suffer an increased
risk of lung infections and even lifelong asthma and respiratory
allergies, according to a study conducted by researchers from Catholic
University Louvain in Brussels, Belgium, and published in the European
Respiratory Journal.

California to Ban Plastic Bags -- Shoppers will have to bring their
own reusable bags or pay at least 5 cents (3p) each for recycled paper
ones under the ban which was approved by state politicians.

REMEMBER
D-DAY JUN 6, 1944
Today is the 66th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of France on the
Normandy coast. It was probably the most amazing feat of arms
in world military history made possible only by the incredible valor
showed by the troops who took part. The operation was the largest
amphibious invasion of all time, with over 160,000 troops landing on 6
June 1944. 195,700 Allied naval and merchant navy personnel in over
5,000 ships were involved. The invasion required the transport of
soldiers and material from the United Kingdom by troop-laden aircraft
and ships, the assault landings, air support, naval interdiction of the
English Channel and naval fire-support. The landings took place along a
50-mile (80 km) stretch of the Normandy coast divided into five sectors:
Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UacLcmRWBkU

Today In History Friday June 4, 2010
1717 - The Freemasons were founded in London.
1792 - Captain George Vancouver claimed Puget Sound for Britain.
1794 - British troops captured Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
1805 - Tripoli was forced to conclude peace with U.S. after conflicts
over tribute.
1812 - The Louisiana Territory had its name changed to the Missouri
Territory.
1816 - The Washington was launched at Wheeling, WV. It was the first
stately, double-decker steamboat.
1878 - Turkey turned Cyprus over to Britain.
1896 - Henry Ford made a successful test drive of his new car in
Detroit, MI. The vehicle was called a quadricycle.
1918 - French and American troops halted Germany's offensive at
Chateau-Thierry, France.
1919 - The U.S. Senate passed the Women's Suffrage bill.
1924 - An eternal light was dedicated at Madison Square in New York City
in memory of all New York soldiers who died in World War I.
1931 - The first rocket-glider flight was made by William Swan in
Atlantic City, NJ.
1935 - "Invisible" glass was patented by Gerald Brown and Edward
Pollard.
1939 - The first shopping cart was introduced by Sylvan Goldman in
Oklahoma City, OK. It was actually a folding chair that had been mounted
on wheels.
1940 - The British completed the evacuation of 300,000 troops at
Dunkirk, France.
1942 - The Battle of Midway began. It was the first major victory for
America over Japan during World War II. The battle ended on June 6 and
ended Japanese expansion in the Pacific.
1943 - In Argentina, Juan Peron took part in the military coup that
overthrew Ramon S. Castillo.
1944 - The U-505 became the first enemy submarine captured by the U.S.
Navy.
1944 - During World War II, the U.S. Fifth Army entered Rome, which
began the liberation of the Italian capital.
1944 - "Leonidas Witherall" was first broadcast on the Mutual
Broadcasting System.
1946 - Juan Peron was installed as Argentina's president.
1947 - The House of Representatives approved the Taft-Hartley Act. The
legislation allowed the President of the United States to intervene in
labor disputes.
1954 - French Premier Joseph Laniel and Vietnamese Premier Buu Loc
initialed treaties in Paris giving "complete independence" to Vietnam.
1960 - The Taiwan island of Quemoy was hit by 500 artillery shells fired
from the coast of Communist China.
1974 - Sally Murphy became the first woman to qualify as an aviator with
the U.S. Army.
1989 - 645 people were killed in the Soviet Union when a gas explosion
engulfed two passing trains.
1989 - In Beijing, Chinese army troops stormed Tiananmen Square to crush
the pro-democracy movement. It is believed that hundreds, possibly
thousands, of demonstrators were killed.
1998 - Terry Nichols received a life sentence for his role in the
bombing of an Oklahoma City Federal Building.
2003 - Martha Stewart was indicted on federal charges of using illegal
privileged information and then obrstructing an investigation. She
resigned as chairman and chief executive officer of her company the same
day.
2003 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban
"partial birth" abortions with a 282-139 vote.
2008 - The United Kingdom and Canada became the first countries to be
able to buy and rent films at the iTunes Store.

Power Hour Chatter: Body found in burned Huntington Beach car --
Investigators found a body inside a vehicle that was burned in a parking
structure at a condominium complex on Monday, authorities said. At 2:55
p.m. Monday, firefighters responded to a call of a vehicle fire in the
underground parking garage of the Pelican Cove complex, 16960 Algonquin
St., said Deputy Fire Marshal Rumors have it that the body
found was that of Mr. Jim Purcey.

McDonald’s Recalls ‘Shrek’ Drinking Glasses in U.S. -- McDonald’s
Corp., the world’s biggest restaurant chain, said it recalled drinking
glasses promoting the new “Shrek” movie in the U.S. The glasses were
found to be tainted with cadmium, the Associated Press reported, citing
the company. Brief inhalation of high concentrations of cadmium may
cause lung disease, according to the website of the Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry. Cadmium is normally used in the
manufacturing of batteries, metal coatings and plastic.

Spill could mean dark times for Sunshine State -- Already reeling
from a real-estate crisis and deep economic slump, Florida faces yet
another financial cataclysm if oil from the Gulf spill mars its famous
shores, scaring away crucial tourist traffic and wreaking havoc on its
fisheries. Beaches are big business in the Sunshine State. At stake
there alone are hundreds of thousands of jobs and perhaps billions of
dollars in revenue, depending on when and where the oil from BP PLC's
/quotes/comstock/13*!bp/quotes/nls/bp (BP 39.27, +1.61, +4.28%) runaway
well makes landfall. Comment: The video (with the computer simulation)
is chilling.

BofA: Mortgage Walkaways Have Huge Incentive -- On the conference
call to announce the program this morning, BofA's credit loss mitigation
executive, Jack Schakett, said the amount of strategic defaulters (those
who can pay their loans but opt not to) are "more than we have ever
experienced before." He went on to say, "there is a huge incentive for
customers to walk away because getting free rent and waiting out
foreclosure can be very appealing to customers."

Surprising Healing Benefits of Spices -- In this article you will
find out which additives can burn fat, ease a sore throat or help you
get to sleep, and how you can incorporate them into your daily diet.

The Dark Heart of the US Government -- Six days ago, we released our
cover story presenting Sydney Schanberg's stunning account of the
American abandonment of hundreds of POWs in Vietnam, their presumed
later death at Communist hands, and the decades-long governmental
cover-up which thereafter ensued.

EXTEND AND PRETEND: Confirming the Flash Crash Omen -- The highly
discussed and quickly forgotten Flash Crash was an omen of what lies
ahead for the financial markets. It was a uniquely distinctive
occurrence relative to anything we've ever experienced. Likewise, what
we are about to witness will be startling and never before observed by
this generation of investors. After only thirty days the Flash Crash
signal has become unambiguous and historians will wonder why the public
didn’t react sooner to its clarion call.

ECONOMICROT: $1,500 Silver -- "If this is the case, everyone who
begins buying silver today could see their investments go up slightly
less than 100X." (Thanks Jimm)

North Korean Envoy Warns War Could Erupt Soon -- North Korean envoy
said on Thursday that war could erupt at any time on the divided Korean
peninsula because of tension with Seoul over the sinking of a South
Korean warship in March.

Slick Nears Florida Panhandle Beaches -- As oil from the Gulf of
Mexico spill neared Florida's Panhandle beaches Wednesday, its effects
were already rippling through the politics and troubled economy of the
nation's largest swing state.

Catastrophe in the Gulf -- Five major hurricanes are forecast to
slam into the United States this year, potentially hampering efforts to
clean up the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill, scientists reported
Wednesday.

California County Sues Glaxo For False Advertising of Avandia Drug
-- Recent reports revealing the dangers of GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK)
diabetes drug, Avandia, have not gone unnoticed. Santa Clara County in
Northern California recently filed a lawsuit against the drug giant for
suppressing evidence that the drug increases heart attack risk.

Feds Halt New Drilling in Gulf -- The Obama administration is
blocking all new offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, a day after
regulators approved a new permit for drilling in shallow water.

Federal Debt Tops $13 Trillion Mark -- The federal government is now
$13 trillion in the red, the Treasury Department reported Wednesday,
marking the first time the government has sunk that far into debt and
putting a sharp point on the spending debate on Capitol Hill.

Today In History Thursday June 3, 2010
1784 - The United States Congress created the United States Army.
1800 - John Adams moved to Washington, DC. He was the first President to
live in what later became the capital of the United States.
1805 - A peace treaty between the U.S. and Tripoli was completed in the
captain's cabin on board the USS Constitution.
1851 - The New York Knickerbockers became the first baseball team to
wear uniforms.
1856 - Cullen Whipple patented the screw machine.
1864 - About 7,000 Union troops were killed within 30 minutes during the
Battle of Cold Harbor in Virginia during the U.S. Civil War.
1871 - Jesse James, then 24, and his gang robbed the Obocock bank in
Corydon, Iowa. They stole $15,000.
1918 - The Finnish Parliament ratified its treaty with Germany.
1923 - In Italy, Benito Mussolini granted women the right to vote.
1928 - Manchurian warlord Chian Tso-Lin died as a result of a bomb blast
set off by the Japanese.
1932 - Lou Gehrig set a major league baseball record when he hit four
consecutive home runs.
1940 - German bombed Paris, killing 254 people. Most of the people
killed were civilians and school children.
1952 - A rebellion by North Korean prisoners in the Koje prison camp in
South Korea was put down by American troops.
1959 - The first class graduated from the Air Force Academy in Colorado
Springs, CO.
1965 - Edward White became the first American astronaut to do a "space
walk" when he left the Gemini 4 capsule.
1968 - Andy Warhol was shot and critically wounded in his New York film
studio by Valerie Solanas.
1989 - Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini died.
1989 - Chinese army troops positioned themselves to began a sweep of
Beijing to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen
Square.
1999 - Slobodan Milosevic's government accepted an international peace
plan concerning Kosovo. NATO announced that airstrikes would continue
until 40,000 Serb forces were withdrawn from Kosovo.
1999 - Dennis Muren received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2003 - Toys "R" Us, Inc. announced that it had signed a multi-year
agreement with Albertson to become the exclusive toy provider for all of
all of Albertson's food and drug stores.

Milwaukee panel considers moratorium on gold -- Milwaukee aldermen,
overwhelmed by the number of businesses seeking to buy used gold
jewelry, are proposing a four-month moratorium on granting licenses for
the firms and a revamping of city zoning rules and state laws that
govern them. The initiative, in a measure scheduled to come before the
city's licensing committee Wednesday, is aimed at coming to terms with a
major boom in gold-buying, as the price of the precious metal hovers in
record territory, at more than $1,200 per ounce.

A New Euro to Save the Old One? -- Once rulers start to speak the
language of violence, the context changes. Now violence is seen as part
and parcel of the conversation. And there are a lot more of the ruled
than the rulers. For these reasons among others, we believe the ability
of those who have placed themselves in charge of the EU will find at
some point that it is simply too hard to manufacture a consensus to
continue on with business as usual.

Experts Puzzled at Red Gulf Oil Slick -- The oil spill taking place
in the Gulf of Mexico for the last month has covered the waters of the
Atlantic Ocean with a reddish slick (not black as usual), which has left
scientists puzzled. They infer that the mixing process currently taking
place between water and oil must have something to do with this peculiar
event, but a connection is not immediately visible, LiveScience reports.
Read more...

Slimmer wallets, richer lives? -- We are about to find out – because
hidden in economic data is a mild decline in the American obsession with
spending money. People are spending somewhat less, even when
unemployment isn’t an issue. Americans are paying down credit-card debt,
the worst kind of debt, while saving somewhat more. As growth rebounds,
we may awaken to a new economic reality in which consumer demand mildly
slackens on a long-term basis. This is exactly what social philosophers
said would be good for us!

IPhone Workers Say `Meaningless' Life Sparks Suicides -- “Life is
meaningless,” said Ah Wei, his fingernails stained black with the dust
from the hundreds of mobile phones he has burnished over the course of a
12-hour overnight shift. “Everyday, I repeat the same thing I did
yesterday. We get yelled at all the time. It’s very tough around here.”
Conversation on the production line is forbidden, bathroom breaks are
kept to 10 minutes every two hours and constant noise from the factory
washes past his ear plugs, damaging his hearing, Ah Wei said. The
company has rejected three requests for a transfer and his monthly
salary of 900 yuan ($132) is too meager to send home to his family, said
the 21-year-old, who asked that his real name not be used because he is
afraid of his managers.

Bond Deals Disappear -- The market for new bond issues is eerily
quiet, and dead in the U.S.. Fewer companies are attempting to issue
debt perhaps for fear of instigating a visible negative market reaction
towards their creditworthiness.

U.S. Inflation to Approach Zimbabwe Level, Faber Says -- Prices may
increase at rates “close to” Zimbabwe’s gains, Faber said in an
interview with Bloomberg Television in Hong Kong. Zimbabwe’s inflation
rate reached 231 million percent in July, the last annual rate published
by the statistics office. “I am 100 percent sure that the U.S. will go
into hyperinflation,” Faber said. “The problem with government debt
growing so much is that when the time will come and the Fed should
increase interest rates, they will be very reluctant to do so and so
inflation will start to accelerate.”

As Obama Wavers, Congressmen Cheer Aidship Massacre -- President
Obama’s reluctance to comment in any but the most vague terms of the
massacre of 19 aid workers by Israeli commandos late Sunday night has
left many wondering exactly where the US government will fall on an
issue which has been blanketly condemned by virtually every government
in the civilized world and virtually every government outside the
civilized world.

Iran to Dump 45 Billion For Gold Bullion and Dollars -- As the
stagnant European economy weighs heavily on the euro forcing it into a
downward spiral, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) unveils a major plan for
converting 45 billion of its euro reserves into dollar and gold ingots.

German President Resigns After War With Economic Interest Comment --
In an interview he gave during his recent visit to the strife-torn
country, Köhler appeared to say that the public debate about the war in
Afghanistan was gradually facing up to the fact that protecting foreign
trade was a legitimate reason for military action.

ECB Warns of $239 Billion in Further Bank Loan Losses -- The
European Central Bank warned on Monday that euro zone banks face up to
195 billion euros in a "second wave" of potential loan losses over the
next 18 months due to the financial crisis, and disclosed it had
increased purchases of euro zone government bonds.

FCC Asked to Monitor 'Hate Speech,' 'Misinformation' Online -- Over
thirty organizations want the Federal Communications Commission to open
up a probe on "hate speech" and "misinformation" in media. "Hate has
developed as a profit-model for syndicated radio and cable television
programs masquerading as 'news'," they wrote to the FCC earlier this
month.

The Taste of Tiny: Putting Nanofoods on Menu -- NOTHING says summer
holidays quite like ice cream. On a hot afternoon by the sea, there's
little to beat the simple pleasure of a cooling scoop of your favourite
flavour. Can food get much more satisfying than this?

Scientists Breed Goats That Produce Spider Silk -- Researchers from
the University of Wyoming have developed a way to incorporate spiders'
silk-spinning genes into goats, allowing the researchers to harvest the
silk protein from the goats’ milk for a variety of applications. For
instance, due to its strength and elasticity, spider silk fiber could
have several medical uses, such as for making artificial ligaments and
tendons, for eye sutures, and for jaw repair.

Scientists Warn of Unseen Deepwater Oil Disaster -- Independent
scientists and government officials say there's a disaster we can't see
in the Gulf of Mexico's mysterious depths, the ruin of a world inhabited
by enormous sperm whales and tiny, invisible plankton.

Do You Call Mocking Jesus Comedy? -- Comedy Central, a popular cable
TV channel, is planning on doing an entire animated series mocking and
ridiculing Jesus Christ entitled "JC."

Today In History Tuesday June 1, 2010
1851 - Maine became the first U.S. state to enact a law prohibiting
alcohol.
1886 - Grover Cleveland became the second U.S. president to get married
while in office. He was the first to have a wedding in the White House.
1897 - Mark Twain, at age 61, was quoted by the New York Journal as
saying "the report of my death was an exaggeration." He was responding
to the rumors that he had died.
1910 - Charles Stewart Roll became the first person to fly across the
English Channel.
1924 - All American Indians were granted U.S. citizenship by the U.S.
Congress.
1933 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted the first swimming
pool to be built inside the White House.
1946 - Italians voted by referendum to form a republic instead of a
monarchy.
1953 - Elizabeth was crowned queen of England at Westminster Abbey.
1954 - U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy charged that there were communists
working in the CIA and atomic weapons plants.
1957 - Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was interviewed by CBS-TV.
1966 - Surveyor 1, the U.S. space probe, landed on the moon and started
sending photographs back to Earth of the Moon's surface. It was the
first soft landing on the Moon.
1969 - Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne sliced the destroyer USS
Frank E. Evans in half off the shore of South Vietnam.
1979 - Pope John Paul II arrived in his native Poland on the first visit
by a pope to a Communist country.
1995 - Captain Scott F. O'Grady's U.S. Air Force F-16C was shot down by
Bosnian Serbs. He was rescued six days later.
1997 - Timothy McVeigh was found guilty of the bombing of a federal
building in Oklahoma City in which 168 people were killed.
1998 - Royal Caribbean Cruises agreed to pay $9 million to settle
charges of dumping waste at sea.
1998 - Voters in California passed Proposition 227. The act abolished
the state's 30-year-old bilingual education program by requiring that
all children be taught in English.
1999 - In South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) won a major
victory. ANC leader Thabo Mbeki was to succeed Nelson Mandela as the
nation's president.
2003 - In the U.S., federal regulators voted to allow companies to buy
more television stations and newspaper-broadcasting combinations in the
same city. The previous ownership restrictions had not been altered
since 1975.
2003 - In Seville, Spain, a chest containing the supposed remains of
Christopher Columbus were exhumed for DNA tests to determine whether the
bones were really those of the explorer. The tests were aimed at
determining if Colombus was currently buried in Spain's Seville
Cathedral or in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.
2003 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that companies could not be sued
under a trademark law for using information in the public domain without
giving credit to the originator. The case had originated with 20th
Century Fox against suing Dastar Corp. over their use of World War II
footage.
2003 - William Baily was reunited with two paintings he had left on a
subway platform. One of the works was an original Picasso rendering of
two male figures and a recreation of Picasso's "Guernica" by Sophie
Matisse. Sophie Matisse was the great-granddaughter of Henri Matisse.

America's junkiest cities -- Think Greece and Spain are drowning in
debt? Look a little closer to home. Seven U.S. cities recently had their
municipal bonds downgraded below investment grade. Their debt is now
junk, considered more worthless than that of the so-called PIIGS.
"America's short-term budget crises, long-term growth perspectives and
needs for austerity are similar [to Greece]," said Matt Fabian, managing
director at Concord, Mass.-based consulting firm Municipal Market
Advisors.

MarketWatch: History paints a bleak picture -- While the market
never completely repeats itself, there are major similarities between
past severe market dislocations and the current one. We've been tracking
the parallels between 1938-1939 and 2009-2010 in our newsletters and
lectures for some time now. In addition, we've made some references to
longer-term parallels between the current markets and those of the past.

IMF Economist Argues Home Prices Still Have Far To Fall -- Dour
predictions about the housing market aren’t the norm anymore, as many
economists have grown optimistic that home prices will begin rebounding
strongly next year. But International Monetary Fund economists Prakash
Loungani has found plenty of reasons to remain glum. Loungani, at a
National Economists Club luncheon in Washington Thursday, presented his
analysis of housing busts since 1970 in the countries that make up the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. His prediction:
Home prices will fall much farther and for much longer.

Veteran got polite answers — but no help -- "I have talked to many
very polite operators who have apologized and promised to resolve (my)
and their problem, but there is no follow-up. I do not think the system
is broken; I think there is no system."
Read More...

Finally,
lawmakers to hear 'Bilderberg conspiracy' -- Once considered a
"conspiracy" theory, the secretive story of the Council on Foreign
Relations, Trilateral Commission and Bilderbergs – tycoons worth more
than the combined wealth of all Americans – will be told in public
before the European Parliament. Daniel Estulin, author of the
hot-selling book, "The True Story of the Bilderberg Group," has been
invited to present an unprecedented speech before the European
Parliament in Brussels June 1 on the subject of the secretive cabal.

Jimmy On The Spot: Can You Get To The Other Side of the River? --
God is faithful to what He places in your heart and in your mind. God
operates outside of our time and all happens in His time. Most everyone
is aware of that promise in Ecclesiastes. Dreams and things placed in
the heart are not happenstance. Maintain the prayers, keep in faith, and
trust that you'll see the stepping stones. He truly wants you to get to
the other side of the river.

Oil Could Hit Florida Panhandle by Wednesday -- A Florida beach
might get hit with oil from the Deepwater Horizon accident for the first
time Wednesday as sheen likely caused by the accident was reported less
than 10 miles off Pensacola Beach.

Iran Has Over 2 Tons Enriched Uranium -- Iran has amassed more than
two tons of enriched uranium, the International Atomic Energy Agency
said Monday in a report that heightened Western concerns about the
country preparing to produce a nuclear weapon.

IDF: Global Jihad on Flotilla -- Dozens of passengers who were
aboard the Mavi Marmara Turkish passenger ship are suspected of having
connections with global jihad-affiliated terrorist organizations,
defense officials said on Tuesday, amid growing concerns that Turkish
warships would accompany a future flotilla to the Gaza Strip.

Soaring Costs Force Canada to Reassess Health Model -- Pressured by
an aging population and the need to rein in budget deficits, Canada's
provinces are taking tough measures to curb healthcare costs, a trend
that could erode the principles of the popular state-funded system.

Euro Hits 4-Year Low Against Dollar -- The euro hit another
four-year low against the dollar on Tuesday as worries that European
banks could still face large loan losses next year added to concerns
about the continent's economic outlook.

Spain Government is Struggling in Crisis -- Spain's Socialist
government is seeing its political power erode as it struggles to chart
a path out of deep financial trouble, failing so far to satisfy
conflicting demands to cut its budget and stimulate job creation.

Turkey's PM Says Israel Should Be Punished -- Turkish Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan called Tuesday for Israel to be punished for storming a
Turkish aid ship and said "nothing would ever be the same" in relations
between the two allies.

Police Arrest Census Taker -- A battle is brewing between the state
and federal governments over a Census taker arrested in Puna for
misdemeanor trespassing.

Activists Send New Boat to Challenge Gaza Blockade --
Pro-Palestinian activists sent another boat to challenge Israel's
blockade of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and Egypt declared it was
temporarily opening a crossing into the Palestinian territory after a
botched raid on an aid flotilla that ended with Israeli soldiers killing
nine activists.

Relief Well Best Hope for Sealing Oil Leak -- The best hope for
stopping the flow of oil from the blown-out well at the bottom of the
Gulf of Mexico has been compared to hitting a target the size of a
dinner plate more than two miles into the earth, and is anything but a
sure bet on the first attempt.

The Best Organic Pet Food Brands Revealed -- A stroll down the pet
food aisle at the local pet store can be overwhelming. The shelves are
full of countless brands all claiming to have the best formulations for
your furry friend.

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